The command to “love thy neighbor as thyself” is a common theme of the Advent season, and one I’ve been thinking about as the nation mourns U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, allegedly murdered by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal during an attack in the nation’s capital the day before Thanksgiving.
My husband and I lived in Washington, D.C., for many years, and raised four children in the city. Reflecting on Spc. Beckstrom and her grieving family, I think about how members of the National Guard have been treated since President Donald Trump directed the Secretary of Defense to mobilize them. How has “loving your neighbor as yourself,” and the biblical corollary to “be kind to the strangers in your midst,” been playing out in our nation’s capital?
Anyone who’s spent decades in this beautiful city knows well that D.C.’s electorate may be the most lopsided in the nation; in 2024, 90.3 percent voted for Kamala Harris, as opposed to 6.5 percent for Trump. But political unanimity doesn’t begin to explain the rancor to which the National Guard and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been subject along the Potomac. Consider recent emanations among the largely well-off citizens of northwest D.C. Amid the usual posts on one local listserv about lost cats, porch pirates, and handymen, something else has bubbled up regularly since August: open contempt for the National Guard and ICE, and calls to “resist” them and their work.
