Let’s get into it.
asserted
’s → let → it
Grief and Fear in Two Ohios
by Andrew Egger
Springfield, Ohio—
They buried Pierre Damas Bel on Saturday.
asserted
They → bury → Saturday
That night, Donald Trump came to town to take a victory lap on the policies that killed him.
asserted
that → come → him
It’s been a bit more than a month since Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian who had come to the United States legally as a high schooler in 2024, threw himself under a truck on the interstate—a death of despair following the revocation of his legal status by the Trump administration this summer.
asserted
who → come → administration
Among the hundreds gathered to mourn Saturday at Springfield’s St. John Missionary Baptist Church, the grief was still raw and immediate.
asserted
grief → gather → Church
The banners on the church walls proclaimed messages of scriptural comfort: “Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is always present.
asserted
Lord → proclaim → comfort
Jehovah Rophe: The Lord heals.”
asserted
Lord → heal → ?
As family members audibly wailed and sobbed, the ministers asked God in English and Haitian Creole for consolation amid heartbreak.
asserted
ministers → wail → heartbreak
We pray that you would draw near us today,” prayed Pastor Ernie Brown of St. John.
asserted
Brown → pray → John
“When questions have no answers, give them strength to trust you with what we cannot understand.”
asserted
we → have → what
Many unanswerable questions hung over Bel’s funeral.
asserted
questions → hang → funeral
How could a country extend such a shining future to a young man like him—only to shatter that future, and him, by suddenly ripping it away?
uncertain
country → extend → it
And how could the president who made it happen show his face that same day, just miles down the road, not only to defend that change, but to bask in it?
uncertain
it → make → it
Hours later, 25 miles away in the Dayton suburb of Vandalia, Trump spiked the football.
asserted
Trump → spike → football
“This is in honor of Springfield, Ohio,” he said, “a quaint little town of 32,000 people where they took in 35,000 people and put them into Springfield, and it didn’t work out too well.
asserted
it → say → Springfield
And they’re being removed.
asserted
they → remove → ?
If there was ever a kid America’s immigration system was for, it was Pierre Damas Bel.
asserted
it → be → ?
It was a place where he seemed destined to flourish.
asserted
he → destine → ?
Speakers recalled how Bel had distinguished himself in school, in athletics, socially, in junior ROTC, and at work.
asserted
Bel → recall → work
He had been bound for local Wittenberg University to play soccer on a scholarship; he intended to study neuroscience and hoped one day to open a hospital back in Haiti.
asserted
he → bind → Haiti
Bel couldn’t have known it, but his dream had started to die the same year he arrived—the year Republicans selected Springfield’s Haitians as their national scapegoat for Joe Biden’s immigration excesses, the year they became the targets of a million racist political lies:
asserted
they → know → lies
“They’re eating the dogs,” Trump blustered from a debate stage.
asserted
Trump → eat → stage
“They’re eating the cats.”
asserted
They → eat → cats
This summer, the hammer dropped.
asserted
hammer → drop → ?
The Supreme Court ruled that it couldn’t really know that Trump’s attempt to evict the Haitians was motivated by racism, so who were the justices to put up a fuss?
asserted
justices → rule → fuss
Just like that, the way was clear for Trump to transform America’s Haitian TPS recipients from a law-abiding, integrating community into illegal immigrants—no longer able to work, get driver’s licenses, or otherwise participate in society; systematically shackled with ankle monitors, under immediate threat of getting dragged into an ICE van and deported.
asserted
Trump → transform → van
Maybe the most remarkable and heartrending thing about Bel’s story was this: He kept his faith in America almost to the end.
asserted
He → keep → end
Unable to play soccer at Wittenberg because of his ankle monitor, he instead enrolled at a nearby state school, Wright State.
asserted
he → play → school
According to his family, the last humiliation came at Wright State’s ROTC program.
uncertain
humiliation → accord → program
Because he was not an American citizen, Bel was ineligible to become an ROTC cadet; he was participating in the program as an elective.
asserted
he → become → elective
Perhaps, at first, he saw this as a distinction without a difference.
asserted
he → see → difference
But then came the news that he, alone among his classmates, could not receive a ROTC uniform.
uncertain
he → come → uniform
He had embraced America; there was no mistaking the signs that America was not embracing him back.
asserted
America → embrace → him
He wanted to wear the cloth of the country.
asserted
He → want → country
The country put an ankle monitor on him instead.
asserted
country → put → him
Days later, he threw himself under a truck.
asserted
he → throw → truck
None of this had had to happen.
asserted
None → have → this
“Our dear friend and brother may have died by suicide,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, at the funeral.
uncertain
Jozef → die → funeral
“But he was killed by the system.”
asserted
he → kill → system
How are the local Republicans feeling about all this?
asserted
Republicans → feel → this
…and 63 more, not listed.
The Aporia
