I Must Disagree with Mollie’s Dad

Mollie Tibbetts’s dad, Rob Tibbetts, wrote an Op-Ed for the Des Moines Register this past Saturday. It was heart-felt and obviously written by a Dad who adored his daughter and wishes to shield his family from further pain. 

That being said, this may be the most ill-advised article I’ve ever written and will probably land me in some hot water, but I none-the-less feel compelled to write it. So here we go. 

Rob Tibbetts writes that, “At the outset, politicians and pundits used Mollie’s death to promote various political agendas. We appealed to them and they graciously stopped. For that, we are grateful. Sadly, others have ignored our request. They have instead chosen to callously distort and corrupt Mollie’s tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed.” 

I get that, which is why it’s difficult for me to publically disagree and take issue. 

First, there are dirtbags on the right who really are died-in-the-wool white supremacists and racists, and wish everyone who isn’t white to get gone. That’s too bad, but this being a free country, they have every right to their own opinions, no matter how vile. 

But frankly, what would you have the rest of us reasonable Americans do – just sit down and shut up about a problem that is both so painfully obvious and eminently preventable as is illegal immigration? 

I’m very sorry for your loss – truly I am, but not regularly and consistently drawing attention to our illegal alien problem is just irresponsible. And I also must take issue with your describing it as “Mollie’s tragic death.” A tragic death would have been her dying in a car accident or something akin. This was a vicious and gruesome murder. It is neither callously distorting nor corrupting to tell it as it is. 

He continues: “The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people. To suggest otherwise is a lie. Justice in my America is blind. This person will receive a fair trial, as it should be. If convicted, he will face the consequences society has set. Beyond that, he deserves no more attention.”   

Of course he’s not a reflection on the entire Hispanic community. No reasonable person would think this. But have you ever wondered why we have a “Hispanic Community?” Doesn’t this just further promote and exacerbate segregation in America? You say justice in your America is blind, but evidently community is not? 

And what if this illegal receives his trial, is not convicted, and somehow gets to walk free, without being deported. Then what? Will you still feel the same way if and when he kills someone else’s daughter?   

The bottom line is that it’s not our fault this illegal alien just happens to be Latino, as was Kate Steinle’s murderer, as well as many others. But it is the fault of liberal border, catch and release and look-the-other-way policy. If not for these, your daughter would still be alive. I’m sorry, but it’s true. And it has nothing at all to do with racism or hatred of one “community” or another – other than the “community” of people who aren’t supposed to be here. 

Mr. Tibbetts says others on the right have used his daughter’s death to further their agenda of animosity towards immigrants and the Hispanic community. He wants this to stop. If this is so, I wholeheartedly agree. 

However, unwittingly, Mr. Tibbetts is doing the same thing. There’s only one reason CNN picked up and ran portions of the Tibbetts article, and added their own pro-illegal two cents. It’s because they feel it advances theirs, which is a radical, open borders, sanctuary city/State, let them all in and give-them-free-stuff agenda. And it’s the opposite of Trump’s, which at this point is more important to them. Yet I don’t hear anyone asking CNN to stand down. 

Again, I am truly sorry for the Tibbetts family at the loss of their daughter, but I for one will not be quiet about the scourge of illegal immigration, regardless of what nationality they may be. And I have no agenda beyond simply insisting that our country finally follow well established and legally passed immigration legislation.  

If this compels others to call me a racist, then so be it.