Rob Tibbetts seems determined not to let Republicans sully the memory of his beautiful, caring daughter daughter with their vile and cravenly political attacks on the Hispanic community in the U.S.
After the search for Mollie was sadly concluded he thanked the immigrant community for their help in looking for her and when he laid Mollie to rest Sunday he had this to say:
Seizing on the fact that the 24-year-old suspect police arrested, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, is a Mexican national who authorities said was in the country illegally, many Republicans, from President Trump on down, used the death to advocate for harsher immigration laws.
But Tibbetts family members have struck a different note, even in the emotionally tense days following the confirmation of her death last week, although they have not directly rebuked the president. During the eulogy her father, Rob Tibbetts, gave during her funeral Sunday, he highlighted his positive feelings for the local Hispanic community.
“The Hispanic community are Iowans. They have the same values as Iowans,” he said, according to the Des Moines Register. He said that during the nearly six weeks he spent in Iowa while authorities searched for his daughter, he ate at a number of Mexican restaurants. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re Iowans with better food.”
The line drew applause from the crowd of more than 1,000, the Register reported, and stood in contrast to the heated political debate about immigration as it related to Tibbetts’s death. Research has shown that immigrants — both those here illegally and not — are significantly less likely to commit crime than native-born citizens.
What the GOP and their intellectually stunted and morally repugnant base voters fail to understand is that real Americans revel in and dearly love the diversity of our citizenship and the wonderful opportunities we are given to experience other cultures within our communities.
Rob Tibbetts understands that and deserves major props for appealing to, as Lincoln called them, “the better Angels of our nature”.
Thank you, Mr. Tibbetts.