Meant to be informative, turned more into a half-rant.
*Evergreen school shooting*
- A student shot two schoolmates on Wednesday before turning the gun on himself. One of the wounded classmates was in critical condition.
- “He had to keep reloading. He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. This went on and on, and as he did that, he tried to find new targets and he came up against a roadblock on many of those doors. He couldn't get to those kids, so there's not enough to be said for the work that the teachers, the coaches, the staff, the students,” Jefferson County Sheriff's Office public information officer Jacki Kelley said. “Lots of kids ran, but the ones who didn't were locked down and they were being cared for. So really, really proud of those people. I have to believe when you bring a gun to school and you continue to fire and reload and fire and reload that you are on a mission. We are grateful that he was less successful, but we're devastated that he was successful at all,” she said.
- Authorities say that Desmond Holly, the school shooter, was radicalized by extremist networks.
*Charlie Kirk*
- While giving a speech about gun rights, Charlie Kirk was shot dead. There is a certain irony in that.
- The suspect has both been said to have possible ties to Antifa and ties to Trump. Not sure which one it is -- these news sources all conflict with each other.
- I find all the celebration about his death online disturbing. It just rubs me the wrong way. I don't condone many of the man's political views, and the last time I saw a bit of his debate in Cambridge, he came off as arrogant, constantly cutting off his opponent and refusing to talk on the actual subject they were supposed to discuss (although it does seem like he had better debates). BUT regardless of how you feel about him, he was a person. His young children witnessed the death of their father (can you imagine healing from that trauma?) and now have to grow up knowing much of the world is making meme's about his death and saying he deserved it. Regardless of how one would feel about their father, that would not be a pleasant way to go through the rest of your childhood.
- Do you not see the problem in glorifying his death? He is already being made a MAGA martyr (which I find interesting considering his adamancy over the Epstein files). All these posts are just making more political unrest while justifying his current "martyr" status. Much of the liberal rhetoric is based off of being the person on the moral high ground, yet the moment that is put to the test, nobody is following up. Tolerance, kindness, forgiveness. Those are qualities often preached about on the left. I am no Republican but I would sure hope that people would actually bother to extend these -- while a dead man is not necessarily entitled to respect, it is not that difficult to respect his surviving family by avoiding celebrations, while not erasing what he said. You can still have huge problems with his political views while not using his death as a special occasion.
- Free speech is free speech. That includes opinions that can be considered hateful. Political violence is political violence no matter if you consider it justified or not. I don't care what you believe. Part of what makes America America is the ability to criticize. Heck, half of the people I know have made it their 24/7 job to be critics of America. And guess what? That's totally allowed by our First Amendment rights, for good reason! America is not meant to be an echo chamber and I sure hope it never will be. What sets us apart from other nations is the ability to recognize that all people have the right to their own personal worldview without going on witch hunts all the time.
- Another thing: free speech does not mean you have to personally agree with and/or respect everything. Nor does it mean that social media sites are not allowed to censor. BUT it does mean that the government cannot censor you unless you are making an incitement to violence, or creating things such as terrorist threats. And that's why I don't believe in the whole witch hunt and doxxing people over making comments on Kirk's death that's being sponsored by the Florida Department of Education. While celebration of his death makes me feel sick, I don't think that violating the first amendment helps any.
*9/11*
- I watched part of Trump's speech on 9/11 (not the rest though). Wasn't expecting much after how he talked about veterans in the past, but this was a pleasant surprise! He actually bothered to tell each hero's story, and ask them to stand for applause. He didn't try to gloss over everything; he actually gave the 24th anniversary of this terror attack meaningful importance. I do find his comments about America's revenge arc a little unnecessary; they don't contribute much to the speech.
- It amazes me. Far, far more people are arguing over Charlie Kirk and Trump's possible stroke than actually bothering to talk about 9/11. I was watching yesterday out of curiosity -- what if I didn't say anything? Would people still make a post on it? And I don't think I saw a single forum topic about 9/11 on here. Despite it claiming almost 3,000 lives, not a single person bothered to touch on it. Has our political polarization got to this point? Are we really going to miss the forest for the trees? What does #NeverForget even mean anymore? With all the time ya'll spend arguing over all these controversies, you would think that taking 2 minutes to talk about one of America's biggest tragedies wouldn't be such a big deal. What's going on? Have we really gotten ourselves this deep into the rabbit hole of politics?
- Let's talk about 9/11. Rescue dogs that went to help the scene would encounter so many dead bodies that they lost all morale. Police officers had to stage mock rescues for them just to keep them going. Flight 93. 44 people. 37 passengers, 2 pilots, 5 flight attendants, and 4 hijackers. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government in Washington D.C. Forty-six minutes into the flight, the hijackers murdered one passenger, stormed the cockpit, and struggled with the pilots as controllers on the ground listened in. Instead, the passengers fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane in an open field. They knew that they would die, but they chose to do so by making a final stand and preventing further death. They chose to send the plane in a nosedive after learning of the suicide attacks. Today, we honor their sacrifice with the Tower of Voices -- a 93 foot tall structure that has 40 individual windchimes. => www.nps.gov/flni/planyourvisit/tower-of-voices.htm, representing each one of the passengers and crew members.
- This was one of the deadliest terror attacks in history. 2,977 people dead total. Of those, 19 hijackers committed murder-suicide, and the remaining were victims. Thousands more were injured. People still suffer from long-term health problems in the aftermath of the attack. 1,700 victims from the North Tower and 1,000 victims from the South Tower. 125 killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities? 92 passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the 65 aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the 64 aboard American Airlines Flight 77 and the 44 aboard United Airlines Flight 93. At least 102 countries lost their citizens in the attack.
- Don't let all of these people become a statistic a mere 24 years later. Their stories should be told. Not buried.
*Evergreen school shooting*
- A student shot two schoolmates on Wednesday before turning the gun on himself. One of the wounded classmates was in critical condition.
- “He had to keep reloading. He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. This went on and on, and as he did that, he tried to find new targets and he came up against a roadblock on many of those doors. He couldn't get to those kids, so there's not enough to be said for the work that the teachers, the coaches, the staff, the students,” Jefferson County Sheriff's Office public information officer Jacki Kelley said. “Lots of kids ran, but the ones who didn't were locked down and they were being cared for. So really, really proud of those people. I have to believe when you bring a gun to school and you continue to fire and reload and fire and reload that you are on a mission. We are grateful that he was less successful, but we're devastated that he was successful at all,” she said.
- Authorities say that Desmond Holly, the school shooter, was radicalized by extremist networks.
*Charlie Kirk*
- While giving a speech about gun rights, Charlie Kirk was shot dead. There is a certain irony in that.
- The suspect has both been said to have possible ties to Antifa and ties to Trump. Not sure which one it is -- these news sources all conflict with each other.
- I find all the celebration about his death online disturbing. It just rubs me the wrong way. I don't condone many of the man's political views, and the last time I saw a bit of his debate in Cambridge, he came off as arrogant, constantly cutting off his opponent and refusing to talk on the actual subject they were supposed to discuss (although it does seem like he had better debates). BUT regardless of how you feel about him, he was a person. His young children witnessed the death of their father (can you imagine healing from that trauma?) and now have to grow up knowing much of the world is making meme's about his death and saying he deserved it. Regardless of how one would feel about their father, that would not be a pleasant way to go through the rest of your childhood.
- Do you not see the problem in glorifying his death? He is already being made a MAGA martyr (which I find interesting considering his adamancy over the Epstein files). All these posts are just making more political unrest while justifying his current "martyr" status. Much of the liberal rhetoric is based off of being the person on the moral high ground, yet the moment that is put to the test, nobody is following up. Tolerance, kindness, forgiveness. Those are qualities often preached about on the left. I am no Republican but I would sure hope that people would actually bother to extend these -- while a dead man is not necessarily entitled to respect, it is not that difficult to respect his surviving family by avoiding celebrations, while not erasing what he said. You can still have huge problems with his political views while not using his death as a special occasion.
- Free speech is free speech. That includes opinions that can be considered hateful. Political violence is political violence no matter if you consider it justified or not. I don't care what you believe. Part of what makes America America is the ability to criticize. Heck, half of the people I know have made it their 24/7 job to be critics of America. And guess what? That's totally allowed by our First Amendment rights, for good reason! America is not meant to be an echo chamber and I sure hope it never will be. What sets us apart from other nations is the ability to recognize that all people have the right to their own personal worldview without going on witch hunts all the time.
- Another thing: free speech does not mean you have to personally agree with and/or respect everything. Nor does it mean that social media sites are not allowed to censor. BUT it does mean that the government cannot censor you unless you are making an incitement to violence, or creating things such as terrorist threats. And that's why I don't believe in the whole witch hunt and doxxing people over making comments on Kirk's death that's being sponsored by the Florida Department of Education. While celebration of his death makes me feel sick, I don't think that violating the first amendment helps any.
*9/11*
- I watched part of Trump's speech on 9/11 (not the rest though). Wasn't expecting much after how he talked about veterans in the past, but this was a pleasant surprise! He actually bothered to tell each hero's story, and ask them to stand for applause. He didn't try to gloss over everything; he actually gave the 24th anniversary of this terror attack meaningful importance. I do find his comments about America's revenge arc a little unnecessary; they don't contribute much to the speech.
- It amazes me. Far, far more people are arguing over Charlie Kirk and Trump's possible stroke than actually bothering to talk about 9/11. I was watching yesterday out of curiosity -- what if I didn't say anything? Would people still make a post on it? And I don't think I saw a single forum topic about 9/11 on here. Despite it claiming almost 3,000 lives, not a single person bothered to touch on it. Has our political polarization got to this point? Are we really going to miss the forest for the trees? What does #NeverForget even mean anymore? With all the time ya'll spend arguing over all these controversies, you would think that taking 2 minutes to talk about one of America's biggest tragedies wouldn't be such a big deal. What's going on? Have we really gotten ourselves this deep into the rabbit hole of politics?
- Let's talk about 9/11. Rescue dogs that went to help the scene would encounter so many dead bodies that they lost all morale. Police officers had to stage mock rescues for them just to keep them going. Flight 93. 44 people. 37 passengers, 2 pilots, 5 flight attendants, and 4 hijackers. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government in Washington D.C. Forty-six minutes into the flight, the hijackers murdered one passenger, stormed the cockpit, and struggled with the pilots as controllers on the ground listened in. Instead, the passengers fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane in an open field. They knew that they would die, but they chose to do so by making a final stand and preventing further death. They chose to send the plane in a nosedive after learning of the suicide attacks. Today, we honor their sacrifice with the Tower of Voices -- a 93 foot tall structure that has 40 individual windchimes. => www.nps.gov/flni/planyourvisit/tower-of-voices.htm, representing each one of the passengers and crew members.
- This was one of the deadliest terror attacks in history. 2,977 people dead total. Of those, 19 hijackers committed murder-suicide, and the remaining were victims. Thousands more were injured. People still suffer from long-term health problems in the aftermath of the attack. 1,700 victims from the North Tower and 1,000 victims from the South Tower. 125 killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities? 92 passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the 65 aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the 64 aboard American Airlines Flight 77 and the 44 aboard United Airlines Flight 93. At least 102 countries lost their citizens in the attack.
- Don't let all of these people become a statistic a mere 24 years later. Their stories should be told. Not buried.
