\u201cJackie\u2019s passion was civil rights and equality, and more so than baseball,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said then. \u201cIt was more of, baseball was just a vehicle for him to use his voice, which is pretty cool to see and actually pretty inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n In these perilous times, in which \u201cindivisible\u201d has been replaced by \u201cyou\u2019re with us, or you\u2019re the enemy within<\/a>,\u201d Robinson\u2019s team will have the opportunity to celebrate its latest World Series championship<\/a> at the White House.<\/p>\n Last month in Minneapolis, two American citizens were shot to death on American streets by agents of the American government. In this fragile moment, I asked Roberts if he would feel comfortable visiting the White House as the manager of Jackie Robinson\u2019s team.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I stand by: I\u2019m a baseball manager,\u201d Roberts told me Saturday at the Dodgers\u2019 fan festival<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s my job.<\/p>\n \u201cI was raised \u2014 by a man who served our country for 30 years \u2014 to respect the highest office in our country. For me, it doesn\u2019t matter who is in the office, I\u2019m going to go to the White House. I\u2019ve never tried to be political. … For me, I am going to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sits on stage during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Neither was Robinson. In 1944 \u2014 three years before he broke baseball\u2019s color barrier and 11 years before Rosa Parks \u2014 Robinson refused an order to move to the back of a bus<\/a>. He was an Army lieutenant, prosecuted by a military court for insubordination and then acquitted.<\/p>\n In the wake of the killings of Renee Good<\/a> and then Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis, federal officials hurried to television cameras and social media accounts. None of the usual admonitions against leveraging tragedy for political purposes. No thoughts and prayers, even, just a rush to dehumanize the dead<\/a> with labels such as \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d before any investigation.<\/p>\n The last words of Good, to one of those federal agents: \u201cI\u2019m not mad at you.\u201d The last words of Pretti, to someone needing assistance: \u201cAre you OK?\u201d<\/p>\n Jackie Robinson: \u201cThe right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n After the killing of Pretti last week, the BBC exhaustively checked the claims of federal authorities against video evidence<\/a> from a variety of sources: \u201cNone of the videos we have analyzed show Alex Pretti holding a gun. There is no available evidence that he was an assassin who tried to murder federal agents, no available evidence he intended to massacre law enforcement, nor that it was a violent riot, no available evidence that this was an individual who arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n In Minnesota, the immigration sweeps proceed unabated. The Star Tribune reported<\/a> Saturday of a local detention facility so overcrowded that a woman had been locked inside a bathroom with three men.<\/p>\n In a suburban Minneapolis incident captured on video<\/a>, an agent tells a man he must produce citizenship documentation \u201cbecause of your accent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Huffington Post reported<\/a> that four children from an elementary school in a heavily Latino suburb of Minneapolis had been shipped to a detention facility in Texas.<\/p>\n This is what America voted for. The \u201cMass Deportation Now!\u201d placards at campaign rallies<\/a> in 2024 were held high.<\/p>\n Yet a judge ordered<\/a> one of those children released Saturday, blasting what he called the \u201cill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackie Robinson: \u201cThe most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not something the Dodgers can dismiss as an out-of-town issue. Federal immigration agents operate in Los Angeles too<\/a>.<\/p>\n And, since Dodger Stadium has become a must-see Japanese tourist attraction<\/a> in the Shohei Ohtani<\/a> era, how much might tourism drop if Japanese citizens could be forbidden from entering the United States without sharing their social media history<\/a> from the preceding five years and every personal and business email address from the preceding 10 years, as federal officials have proposed<\/a>?<\/p>\n Jackie Robinson: \u201cTo build for leadership, one must base his standing on what is right, not what is expedient.\u201d<\/p>\n President Trump greets Dodgers manager Dave Roberts last April during a ceremony to honor the team\u2019s 2024 World Series championship. <\/p>\n (Mark Schiefelbein \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1769948831_807_.jpeg\")
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