I'm not adding Ron DeSantis to my prayers

To hell with him.

By now the horrible details are known: An agent/employee of the Florida governor lied to get roughly 50 undocumented migrants — most of them from Venezuela — out of a San Antonio, Texas, migrant center and onto two planes by promising them a trip to Boston. There, they were told, they’d be given jobs and housing.

Instead, the group — including children — was taken to Martha’s Vineyard and dumped at the airport. Why Martha’s Vineyard? DeSantis didn’t do his homework and so maybe all he knew about MV was that former Pres. Obama owns a home there. Had DeSantis spent even a moment on Google, he would have discovered that MV is not exclusively the ultra-rich people’s enclave he figured.

So the thumb in the eye DeSantis hoped to inflict on Democrats he thinks aren’t sufficiently riled up about immigration was exposed as the most inhumane kind of political theater, where already-traumatized migrants are lied to, kidnapped, and taken. to a tiny island where there were insufficient services to help them.

Why would any one do that? I am not privy to DeSantis’s thoughts, but I am guessing that he, afraid Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was hogging all the (bad) press, horned in for some of his own. And so he hatched up this scheme, and paid Oregon-based Vertol Systems Company Inc. $615,000 to transport the migrants from San Antonio to the island.

Where did that money come from? Federal COVID funds, of course. I did not think I’d live long enough to witness federally-funded human trafficking, but there you are. Daniel W. Uhlfelder, the attorney who roamed Florida’s beaches as the Grim Reaper during the peak of the pandemic and ran an unsuccessful campaign for Florida state attorney general, posted on Twitter:

and

We know the stunt was devoid of morality, but was there anything at all legal about it? Doesn’t appear so.

For their part, Martha’s Vineyard volunteers immediately reacted with food, clothing, and time. A Spanish high school class came to interpret for the migrants. Immigration lawyers boarded ferries to help. (No one alerted the residents of Martha’s Vineyard, but DeSantis did think to send along a camera person, because he’s a schmo.) In short, the people of Martha’s Vineyard treated their unexpected guests as guests, and as people, which is the antithesis of their treatment at the hand of Florida’s top official.

The migrants have since been voluntarily relocated to Joint Base Cape Cod, where there are proper facilities to get them situated. Meanwhile, lawyers are seeking an injunction to stop such flights. That lawyers should have to go to court to point out the evil of this kind of political crap is just one more indication that self-proclaimed Roman Catholic Ron DeSantis is going to hell. As Esquire magazine said recently: Do not walk away from Ron DeSantis. Run.

I do not know the motivations or theology (or lack thereof) of those angels on Martha’s Vineyard, but I’d say they lived out, wittingly or not, the spirit and the law of The Beatitudes found in the book of Matthew, and I find that downright inspiring:

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, 2and He began to teach them, saying:

3Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,

for they will be filled.

7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.

8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.

10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.