The images from Minneapolis, MN are gripping. Shaky mobile phone videos, live streamers, activist propaganda, and well-funded image reels produced by the government are constructing a never-ending reality television show with competing live commentary. We’re spectators sorted on two sides of the same coin intent on exposing and exploiting the people who are now the faces (or masked faces) of a national conversation they didn’t ask to be part of. So long as the show continues with increasing stakes and intense drama, we risk turning people and the policies that impact everyone’s lives into a spectacle that becomes click-bait entertainment, fodder for shallow debates, and ultimately our populist vote.

This should cause all people of concern and morality to resist their temptation to dehumanize the nameless ICE agents, brown and black-skinned men, women, and children, along with the Renée Good’s and Alex Pretti’s of the world into impersonal caricatures we either glorify or demonize. These are real people—contributing mothers, fathers, children, students, young adults, and veterans—whose quiet, relatively peaceful, and innocent lives are being unnecessarily harmed and violated every day. In the midst of the chaos of whistles and wails, gas and guns, and anesthetized news conferences, we are losing our collective sense of what it means to be human.

So long as fear and crisis remain, there cannot be meaningful conversation on immigration policy. This might be the intentional strategy of the few, the incompetence of many, or an insatiable desire for the salacious among most. Instead of an intentional, well-informed, and passionate public debate, the American ethos has descended into decisive action without accountability, consequence, or remorse. This is power unchecked—the very antithesis of the American narrative that for generations upheld and exported a moral belief that power and self-governance belong solely to free people.

The trajectory of the American story is not one-sided, nor is it preordained. However, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s unclear if either of the two major political parties and their ideological aims would have been the “lesser of two evils.” Both have repeatedly violated their oaths in the pursuit of power, influence, and wealth at the expense of others, especially the most vulnerable among us—women, children, the sick, elderly, poor, immigrants, and refugees. There are no easy solutions from this point forward, leaving us to reconcile the reality of the present.

For those who acknowledge that apathy and neutrality are no longer morally available options and are seeking an alternative to the horrifying reality show consuming us, how should a person of conscience and faith respond to the moment?

Let the following be your guide: “Live a life of love.”

Write it down and type it out—everywhere. Recite it and repeat it daily. Commit it to memory. Ponder its implications. Allow yourself to be curious about yourself, your beliefs, and your actions. Challenge the rules, laws, and authorities before you. Journal about it. Share your insights with others. Surround yourself in a community that’s actively and generously seeking this life for themselves and each other.

It will be your and our saving grace.