trump used lies to speak of the death of this last shooting. Terrible as it is, trump does not truly give a damn. it is justb an opportunity for him to cast blame when he truly is one of the most evil there is. a pathological lying machine, totally incapable of loving anyone.
9/11 shaped my generation. I was just a kid in New York when the world shifted. Twenty plus years later, I’m homeless with my dog, but still pushing to light a flame through my writing in StormSide Chronicles. Your reminder matters, Mr. Rather, we carry forward not just the memory, but the responsibility to keep fighting for one another.
How convenient that the right always fails to mention Jan. 6th, and when they do, they will say it was a peaceful protest. Their perception of what is peaceful and what is violent should be taken with a grain of salt.
A nice column Dan but I’ll wait for you to take down the temperature when you stop criticizing the current administration for EVERY single thing they do and calling for people to fight before we lose our democracy. You don’t seem to be able to see that your words have impact also. Please look in the mirror before you start casting stones. Had the press reacted to MLK, JFK, or RFK’s assassinations with cheering and saying they brought it on themselves you’d have been rightly outraged. Where is your outrage for this assassination? You just play “whataboutism.” I notice you didn’t reference the United Healthcare assasination nor the killing of the two Israelis outside their embassy. Why? Because it doesn’t fit you biased narrative. There is no threat to democracy, there is no Constitutional crisis - Donald Trump is term limited and will be gone in 2029. God is in control. Your writing has consequences. Maybe you should turn down the temperature a bit.
Thank you for your steady expression and thoughts on your posts here. You are right. I personally am grateful for your statements of truth about how social media is forging the way more & more for giving us reason for dissension in this Country. I often delete on here too! This many emotions from so many are so raw .Thank you for this forum .
Soo I heard on one forum, I'm not sure which one , now our biggest concern and issue is how we respond. Try (at least I plan to ) fight against cynicism and the thoughts that nobody can do anything at about this "state of affairs " so to speak. We are each different but have a way to make your /my voice heard. We all have something to do !! So find a way! Complacency is the enemy.
I have been with you since September 1961 with your reporting on Hurricane Carla. I lived in Kingsville, Texas. However, I disagree with you stating that Charlie Kirk was a champion of free speech. The following is from Andy Borowitz:
The journalist Jeff Sharlet sets the record straight on Charlie Kirk: ‘He was an opponent of free speech. There’s no other way to cut it, for a man who created something called Professor Watchlist, School Board Watchlist, to name and frighten people from teaching, who advocated restrictions on what school teachers could teach, who called for — and there’s a clip you can see online — who called for the televised public executions, and he had a pretty broad category in mind. But what was really chilling was he wanted this to be required viewing for children. And you can look at this clip, and you can see his colleagues. They’re sort of trolling, but Kirk, again and again, pulls it back to seriousness, and he says, “No, no, no, this isn’t a joke. This has to be a holy experience, a teaching experience for children, watching enemies be killed.” That is not a champion of free speech.’
"Watching enemies be killed" was a strategy used by the Roman Empire against a reformist Jew named Jesus, to remind the people of the Holy Land who was boss. It also was the strategy of the Inquisition when people were burned at the stake. The strategy is not just for children's viewing. What a holy experience, indeed.
Totally agree with you Dan, even if certain people can't for one reason or another tone down the rhetoric it's up to the rest of us to say, killing anyone is wrong not matter for any reason. Praying for the better angels to give us strength to carry on.
Excellent essay as usual! We miss journalists like you Dan, you and the rest of your generation kept the truth coming though our TVs when we needed it.
Democrats seek unity, especially in cases like this. And they condemn violence across the board, are there people on the left celebrating Kirk's death and making fun of it? Yes, and they shouldn't. But this is what Kirk did as a maga influencer also. I don't say that to justify it. But to explain it.
If the invective isn't enough incentive to back off of the social media rants and me-too posts, consider the percentage of those posts that are coming from Russian and Chinese bots designed to keep us fighting. Now with AI that can perfectly mimic our voices and styles as well as our visual selves, we have no clue where the messages are coming from. This is just another form of scamming, with consequences as serious as the loss of life savings dimming in comparison to loss of life. We the people can find better role models and need to be seeking them out.
As for "news" it's impossible to maintain a 24/7/365 meaningful news standard, so we're looking at the exploitation of whatever has the potential to garner readership, viewership and and podcast news cuz ads keep them alive and focus on numbers. As a friend from outside the US explained to me: Blood and Guts Sell.
On behalf of my friends "of color" I'd rather not go back to what we had without a commitment to seek and do better, but even that might do a better job of getting us back on the rails.
trump used lies to speak of the death of this last shooting. Terrible as it is, trump does not truly give a damn. it is justb an opportunity for him to cast blame when he truly is one of the most evil there is. a pathological lying machine, totally incapable of loving anyone.
You don’t have to like all Americans but if you are American you have to LOVE THEM, no matter their stripes.
9/11 shaped my generation. I was just a kid in New York when the world shifted. Twenty plus years later, I’m homeless with my dog, but still pushing to light a flame through my writing in StormSide Chronicles. Your reminder matters, Mr. Rather, we carry forward not just the memory, but the responsibility to keep fighting for one another.
How convenient that the right always fails to mention Jan. 6th, and when they do, they will say it was a peaceful protest. Their perception of what is peaceful and what is violent should be taken with a grain of salt.
A nice column Dan but I’ll wait for you to take down the temperature when you stop criticizing the current administration for EVERY single thing they do and calling for people to fight before we lose our democracy. You don’t seem to be able to see that your words have impact also. Please look in the mirror before you start casting stones. Had the press reacted to MLK, JFK, or RFK’s assassinations with cheering and saying they brought it on themselves you’d have been rightly outraged. Where is your outrage for this assassination? You just play “whataboutism.” I notice you didn’t reference the United Healthcare assasination nor the killing of the two Israelis outside their embassy. Why? Because it doesn’t fit you biased narrative. There is no threat to democracy, there is no Constitutional crisis - Donald Trump is term limited and will be gone in 2029. God is in control. Your writing has consequences. Maybe you should turn down the temperature a bit.
I'm out. This discussion has so many jaded people although we may feel that / what about things that unite us?
Dan,
Thank you for your steady expression and thoughts on your posts here. You are right. I personally am grateful for your statements of truth about how social media is forging the way more & more for giving us reason for dissension in this Country. I often delete on here too! This many emotions from so many are so raw .Thank you for this forum .
Soo I heard on one forum, I'm not sure which one , now our biggest concern and issue is how we respond. Try (at least I plan to ) fight against cynicism and the thoughts that nobody can do anything at about this "state of affairs " so to speak. We are each different but have a way to make your /my voice heard. We all have something to do !! So find a way! Complacency is the enemy.
Amen! Well said!
😞
Dan,
Keep posting!
You bring a sane voice - keep the rhetoric down - to an insane situation-the political murder someone!
Thanks, for being steady!
I have been with you since September 1961 with your reporting on Hurricane Carla. I lived in Kingsville, Texas. However, I disagree with you stating that Charlie Kirk was a champion of free speech. The following is from Andy Borowitz:
The journalist Jeff Sharlet sets the record straight on Charlie Kirk: ‘He was an opponent of free speech. There’s no other way to cut it, for a man who created something called Professor Watchlist, School Board Watchlist, to name and frighten people from teaching, who advocated restrictions on what school teachers could teach, who called for — and there’s a clip you can see online — who called for the televised public executions, and he had a pretty broad category in mind. But what was really chilling was he wanted this to be required viewing for children. And you can look at this clip, and you can see his colleagues. They’re sort of trolling, but Kirk, again and again, pulls it back to seriousness, and he says, “No, no, no, this isn’t a joke. This has to be a holy experience, a teaching experience for children, watching enemies be killed.” That is not a champion of free speech.’
"Watching enemies be killed" was a strategy used by the Roman Empire against a reformist Jew named Jesus, to remind the people of the Holy Land who was boss. It also was the strategy of the Inquisition when people were burned at the stake. The strategy is not just for children's viewing. What a holy experience, indeed.
Totally agree with you Dan, even if certain people can't for one reason or another tone down the rhetoric it's up to the rest of us to say, killing anyone is wrong not matter for any reason. Praying for the better angels to give us strength to carry on.
Excellent essay as usual! We miss journalists like you Dan, you and the rest of your generation kept the truth coming though our TVs when we needed it.
Democrats seek unity, especially in cases like this. And they condemn violence across the board, are there people on the left celebrating Kirk's death and making fun of it? Yes, and they shouldn't. But this is what Kirk did as a maga influencer also. I don't say that to justify it. But to explain it.
Remember, we're only going down if we think we are.
If the invective isn't enough incentive to back off of the social media rants and me-too posts, consider the percentage of those posts that are coming from Russian and Chinese bots designed to keep us fighting. Now with AI that can perfectly mimic our voices and styles as well as our visual selves, we have no clue where the messages are coming from. This is just another form of scamming, with consequences as serious as the loss of life savings dimming in comparison to loss of life. We the people can find better role models and need to be seeking them out.
As for "news" it's impossible to maintain a 24/7/365 meaningful news standard, so we're looking at the exploitation of whatever has the potential to garner readership, viewership and and podcast news cuz ads keep them alive and focus on numbers. As a friend from outside the US explained to me: Blood and Guts Sell.
On behalf of my friends "of color" I'd rather not go back to what we had without a commitment to seek and do better, but even that might do a better job of getting us back on the rails.