Today, students at my old high school, William Penn Senior High School in York, Pa., performed a walkout in protest of ICE atrocities. It behooves me as an alum to point out that we call it York High, or simply The High, just in case a fellow alum sees this and I get messages about how I misnamed our school.

My old school is in a small, diverse city in the south-central part of the state. My hometown, as of the 2020 census, had a population of 44,800 that is divided thusly: 37.7% white, 25.9% Black, 1% Asian, 13.4% two or more races, and 38.1% Hispanic. It boasts a thriving Puerto Rican and Greek community. Like nearby Harrisburg and Lancaster which forms the 44th-sized designated media market in the United States, York is an island of diversity and blue politics surrounded by a sea of mostly white population and red politics.

I remember growing up and seeing an increase in Puerto Ricans and Greeks showing up in my neighborhood throughout the 1970s and 1980s. While people from Puerto Rico really are American citizens, they have always been viewed as immigrants. While Greek folks are considered white, they were unique additions to my hometown due to their different language and cultural differences.

Given I grew up in an FDR/JFK/MLK household, this was not viewed as a problem for my family or me. However, for a lot of white people, this was definitely considered a problem. I always tell people that my hometown and my home county are a blue island in a sea of red. It goes without saying that while being a Republican doesn’t automatically make you a xenophobe, it certainly raises the odds.

So, the reaction to a video by the York Daily Record of the march on Facebook featured the kinds of comments you might expect. Yes, there were some saying they were impressed with young people taking a political stand and caring about the world. But of course there are idiots in a red sea surrounding a blue island.

The two most hilarious (read: stupid) points that these people make are based in hypocrisy and ignorance. Given that the majority of Hispanics in York are Puerto Rican, they are targets of immigrant hate. But wait, they’re American citizens, right?

Ha! Not according to MAGAs, who likely make up much of the nearly half of Americans who do not realize that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. In fact, they are quite certain of it, and anyone who believes Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens is full of woke bullshit, or something.

That’s the ignorance part. The hypocrisy is the cries of “you must follow the law!” coming from pro-ICE people. I mean, c’mon. They support a man who has 34 felony convictions, who routinely ignores court orders, and has a long track record of viewing the law as something for little people. And in keeping with their deep tradition of being the most lying humans on the planet, the Trump administration is being deeply dishonest about who they are arresting.

This is just a slice of what is going on in the United States right now. We are facing up to a president who is full of hate and lies, who is leading a group of people who slurp up that hate and lies like my greyhounds finding a piece of a cheeseburger on the ground during our walks. At least in our dogs’ case, they don’t know any better. But we are not having it, and I am proud of the students at my old school for being part of that resistance.

The last word goes to Sir Ian McKellan, who brought down the house on Colbert this week with his performance of The Stranger’s Case, part of an obscure Shakespeare play, Sir Thomas More. Well worth five minutes of your time to learn that even 400 years ago, so many treated immigrants with hate and violence.