Debra Spark is a writer who lives in North Yarmouth.

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz asked for some compassion from the federal government recently, Vice President JD Vance called him “a joke.” Can you imagine someone talking like this in your household? Your place of work?

I stood on an overpass in Falmouth on Jan. 8, the day after Renee Good was killed, with others who had American flags and anti-ICE signs. I was encouraged by the non-stop supportive beeps from the highway below us, and those who drove by on the road behind.

My own sign read, “No ICE for M.E.” In the space of an hour, the happy taps of horns were only twice contradicted. There was one long, angry beep from a trucker below, and then a pickup passed, and a young man stuck half his body out the passenger window to yell, “F—you.” What is so enraging about a group of mostly old women, standing by the side of the road, showing their support for the country but not for immigration policy?

We all know you aren’t supposed to shriek at people you disagree with. What’s more, good policemen are trained to de-escalate conflict. De-escalation clearly isn’t in the playbook of the federal government, which thrives on conflict, anger, rudeness and insulting other people, as if such behavior is what makes America great.

I’ve lived in Maine for 30 years and have rarely encountered such antics here. Almost
everyone I meet, whether at work, the gym or the supermarket, is nice, and I live in one part of the state, work in another and have visits countless towns for my writing.

So who are the Mainers who are OK with the basic lack of civility, the weaponizing of the federal government against the very people the government is supposed to represent and support? Why was that guy so angry he had to throw his body halfway out of the car?

I get that some people believe the lies they are getting from the Trump administration, though it
becomes harder and harder to understand why. Especially this month. We can all see what
happened to Renee Nicole Good and hear the reports of bystanders. We also know what
actually happened on Jan. 6 because we saw it, no matter what a new federal government
website claims.

As George Orwell wrote in “1984,” “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” The lies about what is actually going on in this country, as the historian Tim Snyder recently wrote on Substack, are what justify the violence. The federal government is lying about the truth to justify its behavior, because that is what tyrannies do.

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once lacked so much empathy herself that she walked behind the young survivor of a school shooting to taunt him, has begun to feel more compassion. Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller and Pam Bondi are still clearly incapable of empathy.

I have always believed in trying to work things out with people with whom you disagree. But we are so far past that point now, because we are not a country with two ideologies at the present moment. The (ironic) last name of this month’s victim — a woman trying to help protect immigrants in her community: Good.

The good side knows it needs to peacefully protect, to support organizations that are pushing
back on executive overreach, and to voice their opinions to their congressional representatives.

Clearly this is not enough; the atrocities continue.

Q: Who thinks it is OK for multiple masked and armed men to force a diminutive old
Hmong man in his underwear out of his house in the freezing cold, based on zero evidence that he was the sexual predator they (supposedly) were seeking?

A: Bad people.

In “Paradise Lost,” it takes Jesus’s sacrifice for good to triumph. And in the book of the
current moment, what will it take for good to prevail? I’d like to know, because I (and so many
other decent Mainers) would like to contribute to it.