The conversation about the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has carried with it a somber tone, reflective of an America that seems to have changed. The idea that a political commentator was assassinated for speaking his opinions on American soil is sickening and many Americans were eager to point fingers.
Fox News host Jesse Watters said that the Left is “at war with us.” Elon Musk proclaimed that the Left is “The Party of Murder.” Both Watters and Musk seemed to allow their bias to render their memories incapable of remembering the summer shootings of a Democratic politician and her husband in Minnesota - and the Democrats who survived being shot by the same man, who was also carrying with him a target list of other Democratic officials.
We, as a country, have abandoned our sense of unity when we are quick to point fingers at the other side after a tragedy. The hate consistently expressed on my social media pages are proof that the angry contempt for anyone who is not a right-winger is very real and tangible. Yet, they seem unable to see their own reflections of hypocrisy.
This is not a time to point fingers and feel better about our side because the rhetorical hate is evident on both sides. This is a time to understand what has happened and how contrary it is to the spirit of America. We are losing our country.
And on the subject of free speech, the Chairman of the FCC under the Trump Administration, Brendan Carr, is threatening to use the agency to punish any media outlets that speak words or ideas that Trump disagrees with. This is unheard of. The President of the United States is going to control political debate in a country where The Constitution guarantees that the media and citizens can express thoughts contrary to the president’s wishes.
Free speech in America means that the media can speak freely, and so can our citizens. Charlie Kirk was killed, it appears, for expressing his opinions. The only difference between President Trump cancelling the free speech of the media and Charlie Kirk’s speech being cancelled is a bullet. But, in theory, both constitute a cancelling of free speech.
I have been warning of the assault on free speech in this country coming from President Trump and his fragile inability to tolerate any speech that contradicts or challenges his views of America. This attack on freedom of speech is real and it is happening.
We, as the people of this great country, MUST reject any and all attempts to cancel free speech. Charlie Kirk should be alive today to continue to express his views and the media must remain free to express its collective views. Freedom of speech is essential to maintaining America. If we lose our freedom of speech - we will be nothing more than a dictatorship where the leader controls speech. That is NOT America!