I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS And I sat down and put them to paper last night.
Twenty four years ago today, our nation was attacked in devastating fashion by Islamist terrorists who wished to destroy The Great Satan. Millions of us watched in horror as planes flew into the second World Trade Center. We watched human beings plunge to their death when escape from the buildings became impossible. We gasped in collective horror when another plane flew into the Pentagon. When word came of yet another crash in a field in Pennsylvania it was clear that the United States of America was under attack.We didn’t know who, but we knew it was happening. The days and weeks that followed were filled with heroic actions as brave men and women poisoned themselves digging through fallen buildings looking for survivors.Thousands donated blood for the survivors that never arrived. And the country was united against that enemy from far away. For most of us I think that day is burned like a scar in our memory.
I can still clearly remember every moment of the day, from the phone call from my then mother-in-law telling me to turn on the news, which I did just in time to see the second plane hit.I was a radio news reporter at that time and immediately called my boss to find out what to do. He asked me to find a local angle (that’s what you do when something big happens), so I headed to the blood donation center in Gainesville.When I got to the center, it was raining ever so slightly, just a drizzle but enough to be annoying. In the parking lot, in a line that snaked back and forth across the sizable lot were at least 500 people who were standing quietly in the rain, waiting to do the only thing they COULD do, which was donate blood for the survivors we were all hoping would be found. The entire scene struck me as so beautiful I had to stop and gather myself before I walked up to people who were grieving in the same way I was to ask if they would talk to me. When a tragedy strikes the news people are the ones who have to find the people to talk to, and I honestly hate that part of the job. I always feel like I’m intruding when the last thing anyone needs is to be bothered. But when I asked the first person if she’d go on the air with me, she accepted without hesitation and we spoke about how horrifying the whole thing was. She said she felt so helpless and devastated but had to do something. I spoke to all sorts of people, young and old, black and white, and they all had the same story. They knew that we were in this together and they wanted to do their part. I have no idea what their political affiliations were because it didn’t matter. We were all Americans fighting the enemy from the unknown. At least for a while
Fast forward to yesterday when about half an hour into my radio talk show we got news of a school shooter in Evergreen. My heart sunk. This would not be my first breaking news coverage of a school shooting and I hate it. It’s challenging to do a show when you’re trying to give all the details you can and there are none. But our news team mobilizes quickly, and I’d done it before so I knew we could get through it. But then, almost simultaneously the news broke that Charlie Kirk had been shot.On one television I had on Fox News for that coverage, and on the other I had our local Fox 31 on for their coverage of the Evergreen situation, where we still didn’t know if anyone had been killed.I’m pretty good handling one crisis but two at the same time was almost too much. And now Charlie Kirk is dead and though I don’t know anything about the yet as uncaught assassin who killed him, I do know this. Back in 2001 we were brought together by the enemy from outside. And when 9/11 happened we all knew it was a catastrophe that would fundamentally change us and the world, and it did. But yesterday we saw the enemy from within.
I am not a Charlie Kirk superfan, but I admired his ability to connect with and share the ideas I believe in with an audience that usually tunes such talk out. His demo was the college kids he went and met face to face.Thousands of students have come to his events to see Kirk debate young liberals and progressives about the illogical nature of their world view. It was like a sort of tent pole revival, only the revival was the ideas our Founders fought for. He was respectful, but not afraid to call a man a man even when they were wearing a dress.Thousands of students listened to his impassioned defense of the roots of liberty and this nation, and he is probably responsible for a good chunk of the large number of young people registering Republican right now. He urged young men to stop the endless partying and get married and have kids. He expressed opinions that were wildly unpopular with the most strident students, but in the many snippets of these confrontations I’ve seen more than one have a visible lightbulb moment when they realized their passionately held beliefs were built on a foundation of sand. And for this, someone decided he needed to be murdered. And with one bullet, Charlie Kirk became a martyr. And his message got a billion times more powerful.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been in political news talk for the past twenty years, but this killing has rattled me. It’s odd to say but when President Trump was shot at a campaign rally I was not nearly as surprised as I was about this. First off, other Presidents have been shot, as recently as Reagan when I was a kid. And when Trump was shot, we immediately knew he was okay after he stood and raised his fist to the crowd. But this is different. Kirk wasn’t the President, or an elected official who had earned the ire of a mad constituent. Kirk was just a guy, a dad, a husband and a conservative. How did we get here? How do we get out?
A few days after the attacks of 9/11, columnist Steve Chapman wrote these words:
America's founding document, the Declaration of Independence, is not just a historical relic concerned with grievances against George III. It's a radical manifesto whose relevance has not diminished in 225 years. What makes it so important, then and now, is its exaltation of the "unalienable rights" of every person -- including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." . . .
It was bad enough when democratic freedom prevailed on our shores. But today, it is the aspiration of billions of people around the world. Tyrants and terrorists see our way of life as a mortal threat to everything they hold dear. To our credit, it is.
Back then, he wrote them about Islamic terrorists who hated our way of life and our freedoms. They could be said today about whoever killed Charlie Kirk. Read this part again.
Freedom and openness are the most conspicuous and admirable features of our society, but they infuriate those intent on exerting control over their fellow man. To them, nothing can be more dangerous than letting people think for themselves.
The bad guys have changed but the motive remains the same. Charlie Kirk was just talking to a couple of thousand college students and someone who can’t stand the free exchange of ideas killed him. We used to be the place where people could vigorously debate ideas, even unpopular ones, but we've changed. It's about winning and losing, owning the other side, demonizing those you don't agree with and stopping speech you find objectionable. We've lost our ability to reason and seek understanding of why someone might feel the way they do. I'm not sure at all how to fix it. Today I prayed that God would give me the right words to say to bring us together, not tear us apart, and that we all would resist the urge to give into the feelings that lead to revenge. I also pray that those on either side of the political debate who don't see people on the other side as human beings can have their eyes opened. Yesterday two little kids under five were left without a dad and a 36 year old wife is left without a husband likely because of speech. No one should be okay with that, no matter how much you disagree with his message. Yesterday felt similar to 9/11 in another way. It feels like in 100 years historians will talk about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and say, "yep, that's when it all went to shit". Here's hoping that we can write a different history instead.
IT'S TIME TO GET GUNS IN SCHOOLS I've been too squishy about this in the past. Gun control is a fantasy. All the laws we've passed in Colorado did nothing to stop a student from shooting two other students in Evergreen yesterday and then taking his own life. It's time to put armed staff in schools, even though I realize that may not have stopped yesterday's shooting. Perhaps if students knew there were armed teachers they would be less likely to do things like this. Perhaps if we sent the message that schools are no longer a soft target it would give people pause. And I've got Laura Carno on today at 12:30 to talk about a program that has been in existence for years that uses a very high level training program to arm teachers or staff who volunteer to go through the program. Find out more about the program and lean on your school district to implement it. Find out more about Laura by clicking here.
TODAY I'M TAKING YOUR CALLS I think we need to talk, peeps. I want to hear your thoughts on the last 24 hours, which here in Colorado has been doubly worse.
THE EVERGREEN GUNMAN IS DEAD We still don't know much about the two students he shot but the self inflicted gunshot wound took the life of the shooter. I'm saying a prayer for those kids and their families, and I mean all of them. They have been changed forever. Best news ever is that one of the shot students left the hospital this morning. The other remains in critical condition. 9News has more here.
ISRAEL IS OFFERING HELP TO PALESTINIANS IN GAZA My nephew told me about this today. Israel has a hotline for Gazans to call if they are trying to flee combat areas and are stopped by Hamas checkpoints or soldiers, they can call Israel and they will come destroy them so Gazans can continue to move out of the way of the fighting. Worst genocide ever. Israel is also letting Palestinians know that Hamas is lying about there being no room left in the humanitarian zone set up by Israel so citizens can flee to safety. You can read that here.
WHAT FIGHTING BACK LOOKS LIKE Scott Pressler has been outing the worst of the worst on social media celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. This is how you do it. Expose the ghouls and hope they face repercussions. Click this thread to see his whole stream on the people celebrating and surprise, surprise, they are mostly left wing women.
MSNBC SHOWS A SPINE by firing political pundit Matthew Dowd after he stoked outrage by saying Charlie Kirk deserved it. They obviously didn't listen to the rest of what was said on his network or more people would have to be fired.
ARE DEMOCRATS OKAY WITH THEIR SIDE BEING THE PARTY OF DEATH? I want to be clear as I write this that the following is not an attempt to blame the Democratic party for the death of Charlie Kirk. But acting like political violence from the left is not a growing problem would by lying. Miranda Devine did a column here with recent examples. You really should read it to see just how many people have been attacked or killed by deranged people who share a left wing ideology. The man who killed two people and wounded more in Minnesota in a politically motivated shooting was a Republican, but he believed he had been ordered by Governor Tim Walz to kill other politicians (clearly detached from reality). The people celebrating online were leftists. The left is the party of abortion, which no matter how you spin it, ends a human life. They are the party of assisted suicide, of declaring that a city where 7 people are murdered in one weekend "safe", and of wishing for the death of an American President. Are rank and file Democrats really okay with all of this? How can you be? I guess I'm just looking for someone to explain it to me.
POLIS BLAMES OTHERS FOR THE LAW HE SIGNED I guess the Governor should pay attention to the horrible laws his party passes before he signs them. After the story of Debisa Ephraim being released from Weld County after being found incompetent to stand trial because of a law passed by Democrats and signed by Governor Jared Polis, our fearless Governor sent out this tweet:
WHAT??? HE SIGNED THE LAW THAT LET THIS HAPPEN. But the internet was not kind, and the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network reminded him of their pleas in early August to make this part of the special session. He did not.
The Weld County DA, whom Polis seems to blame for this release, was not taking things lying down. From ABC7:
Now, Weld County District Attorney Michael J. Rourke is addressing what his office is calling "misinformation" in the governor's post.
"This is his law," said DA Rourke, after pointing to the Governor's signature on House Bill 24-1034.
The district attorney points to this change in Colorado law as the reason the cases were dismissed and sheriff's office was unable to continue hold the suspect in custody.
"It mandates the dismissal of charges against defendants when they have been found incompetent to proceed and not restorable."
Do not let Polis get away with this hot garbage take. Do not.
THIS IS THE EPISODE BEN WAS TALKING ABOUT YESTERDAY The Twisted View is a great show on the Independence Institute's YouTube channel. They were recording yesterday when the news broke.
NOW FOR SOME OTHER STUFF Because I can't do this all day. Here is a video of when toddler's cough which is scarily accurate. Watch below or click here.
THE CODDLING OF THE NBA PLAYER CONTINUES And you guys I thought this was a joke.
If I played for the NBA I'd be embarrassed about this but apparently they are all too busy looking up their stats to care.
GLP-1s ARE HELPING WOMEN WITH PCOS And of course insurance won't pay for it. PCOS is a condition that can lead to fertility issues, horrible periods and a myriad of other issues and women who have taken GLP-1s say the drug is a godsend. Not only does it help them lose weight in some cases it has relieved the symptoms entirely. Read more here.
DOES SUNLIGHT MAKE US HAPPY? It's complicated but I know I'm happier being outside for part of the day sunny or not. Read more here.
THE FBI HAS THE GUN And they have prints and they will not give up until this person is caught.
Word is that the ammo and cartridges had trans and anti-fascist writing on them. But all of this is unconfirmed. Lord help us if a trans person did this after the other recent shootings.
THE TRANSIT DEATH SPIRAL IS REAL And in this article in Politico they lament what that will do to the climate change agenda. I don't care.
THIS MAN IS HIS OWN KIND OF HERO if you know him I'd love to speak with him!
TUCKER MAY HAVE LOST HIS WAY BUT HE'S RIGHT ON THIS Watch below or click here.
COMMON SENSE IS WINNING
NOTHING TO SEE, JUST AN ALIEN SHIP NOT BEING DESTROYED BY A HELLFIRE MISSILE But I'm sure it will be fine. Watch below or click here.
HERE IS THE PERSON OF INTEREST The FBI released these photos this morning. Do you know him?