They say you should not speak ill of the dead.
Well, in these fraught times, speaking ill of the dead is becoming standard U.S government behavior. This is startlingly the case with regard to the death in Minneapolis of Renee Good. This page is not going t
o delve into the details of this tragedy.
What happened is available to all on video and the FBI is carrying out an investigation that we hope will be thorough, fair and unbiased.
No, what we are addressing are the words of our government leaders in the immediate - very immediate - aftermath of Good's death after she was shot by an ICE agent.
Good, we were told, had been acting as a domestic terrorist, that she was part of the "Radical Left" and so forth and so on.
These accusations were delivered very quickly after the fatal shooting; far too quickly. But we have seen this before. The federal government sounds as if it is reading from the British government's playbook which was employed all too often during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
There are confrontations between demonstrators and the security forces, including the British army. Shots are fired, people are killed.
Within a short frame of time these people are being framed, delegitimized, dehumanized. They are labeled as gunmen, bomb throwers, terrorists.
And of course, as in standout tragic occurrences such as the Ballymurphy Massacre and Bloody Sunday, the dead were simply that: the dead.
They were not terrorists.
They were civilians caught up in a growing conflict between a mailed fist enforcement of dubious law and those desiring fundamental changes in an oppressed society.
In the case of the Troubles it has taken years, decades, for the truth to come out in official language, for apologies to be delivered, for an acknowledgement that the truth was buried under a mountain of lies and political expediency.
Are we seeing a repeat of this in our present day United States?
Is it the case that if you look askance at masked ICE agents you not only risk your life but your reputation as a person not given to terrorist thoughts, inclinations or actions.
Is this what has befallen Renee Good?
According to a Guardian report the 37-year-old mother of three was subjected, after her death, to "a torrent of untruths, half-truths, smears, and innuendo....unleashed by the White House, and amplified by its social media and cable television acolytes."
And for stark contrast here's this from a report carried by the Irish Independent: "A woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in the US on Wednesday was a devoted Christian who had previously travelled to Northern Ireland on youth missions."
If Good visited Northern Ireland in the context of promoting peace and a better life for young people that is certainly worth stacking up against the charges of domestic terrorism which, of course, are absolute nonsense.
We are going down a dark path here.
Truth is a priceless commodity in any society.
But in the America of 2026, the 250th year of the Republic, truth seemingly has a price.
It is lately a commodity that can be bought and paid for. There is no absolute truth even in a situation that is presented in audio and visual terms to the point that all angles are covered, literally.
People can pick and choose.
They can reach different conclusions based on what they see and hear.
That is their right. But for all too many it is a matter of believing first and foremost what the government says. And if the government is spouting untruth we are all burdened with that untruth.
Such was the case for so many families in Ireland who had to bear the burden of official lies for all too many years after losing their loved ones to illegal actions by the security forces.
We can only hope that America does not mimic and repeat such a travesty of justice.
Yes, we can only hope.
