September 23, 2025: Pushing Back Works

On June 5, 1989, one lone man of undetermined age stood in front of a column of tanks, raised his arm toward them and gestured, Stop! I am not sure how long he stood there before other people standing by whisked him out of the way. Nor am I sure what happened to him afterward, although the authorities stated they were pretty sure he got away safely. I do know that someone snapped a photograph of the moment and that the picture is now a symbol of the constant fight for freedom that must be waged everywhere, not just at Tiananmen Square.

Yesterday, the Constitution and its supporters scored a victory. We won! Jimmy Kimmel has been reinstated on ABC by parent company Disney Corporation. It was a stunningly quick victory, prompted by widespread protest and threats of boycott. Take a victory lap! Speaking freely in favor of free speech still works! But remain vigilant. This is just one victory in one battle in a long and continuing war, and we cannot let up.

What Jimmy Kimmel said that night was not an attack on Charlie Kirk, nor in any way critical of him. Kimmel expressed outrage at the violence that took Kirk away, and gave his condolences to Kirk's family. What he said next is allegedly what caused him grief. He pointed out that MAGA supporters were quick to accuse the far Left of criminal conspiracy without knowing just what the assassin's motives, or, for that matter, his politics, were. He railed against the weaponization of Kirk's death. He went on to shift his focus to President Trump, noting how insincere Trump's grief over the loss of a supposed friend was. Personally, I think that was the real reason Trump and his cronies got so upset.

It doesn't matter. Charlie Kirk once stated in public that Joe Biden should be imprisoned or perhaps sentenced to death for treason. That sounds pretty hateful to me, but it was his right to say so. Just as it was Kimmel's right to accuse MAGA of using Kirk's death to their advantage. Just as it is my right to write about it. No one should be murdered for their thoughts. No one should be prosecuted for their thoughts. Great people, great patriots have died to protect that basic, critical tenet of our system.

I think of Tiananmen Square, one of so, so many moments when people fought and died to expand human rights. In my mind's eye, I see “The Man” stopping an entire column of tanks in their tracks. It was a wonderful, hope-filled moment, but it passed, and China is still China.

This is a wonderful moment, but it will pass. It will become frozen in a photograph if no other moments follow.

September 19, 2025: Radio Free Amerika

 

It is interesting to note that the first thing Vladimir Putin did when he gained power was to go after comics who lampooned him. He applied pressure to get state-run Gazprom Media to take over the network broadcasting the satirical program Kukly (translation: Puppets), and end the program in 2001. That was only the beginning of Putin's clamping down on free speech in Russia, a precarious, recent thing in post-Glaznost Russia. Also interesting is the fact that Volodymyr Zelenskyy began his career as a comic before running for president of Ukraine. Strongmen and comics do not get along. Maybe comparing Trump to Adolph Hitler, which is highly incendiary according to the Right, is outdated. Trump is much more like his good buddy Putin.

To Mr. Trump, all opponents are democrats and all democrats are communists, and therefore enemies of the state. He paints anyone with a differing viewpoint as unpatriotic, who should be looked at closely as possible criminals. If that's not hate speech, I don't know what is. But I don't see Trump singled out for suspension from his job over his exercise of free speech.

I know I can say these things in America, still, at the moment. I also know I am a small voice preaching to the choir. I may be too small to bother about, which is all the more reason to keep warning anyone who will listen that We The People have all but surrendered democracy to a spiteful buffoon dedicated to power and greed.

Let us be clear. The watershed moment was not Charlie Kirk's brutal murder. It was Jimmy Kimmel's suspension. Kimmel, and the dozens of people who worked to create his program, have been economically assassinated. Trump doesn't have to kill people to silence their voices. America has become Amerika. It is a dictatorship. Every member of Congress who remains compliant is complicit in our betrayal and is a traitor to the Constitution.

My only hope is that the severity of the response to the perceived threat of a couple of late night talk show hosts will backfire.

September 18, 2025: Speeking of Freedom, Upside Down

 

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

-----George Orwell

Charlie Kirk may not be the best choice for a martyr, but he can't help becoming one. This is a man who called for then President Joe Biden to be sentenced to the death penalty. Kirk said it. Look it up. Yet that's okay, but saying his assassin is a MAGA extremist gets Jimmy Kimmel fired. The world is upside down, and speech in America is no longer free.

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

-----Theodore Roosevelt

The Right is trying to silence the Left and everyone inbetween. They act as if it is morally reprehensible to challenge or disagree with Donald Trump, or, for that matter, any of his cronies in the Cabinet or throughout the country. ANTIFA, which is an anti-fascist and anti-racist movement made up of individual groups without a central hub, Trump wants to label a terrorist organization. Yet he has no such plans for the Proud Boys, which is a centralized organization that promotes violence, and which has been declared a terrorist group in Canada. Trump wants to destroy balance in our country, and he has lots of help.

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

-----George Washington

Freedom of Speech in America is not dead, but it has been shot, and ICE agents have taken it into custody, preparing to deport it. They are now after its family members, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Religion, the Right to Peacable Assembly, and the Right to Petition the Government. But Speech goes first, replaced by the freedom to accuse anyone you don't like of being unpatriotic.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”

-----Benjamin Franklin

Beware! Poets warn. Alarmists keep watch. Ignore them at your peril. Our country is in danger of slipping into totalitarianism, and soon. We are not staging mass executions or sending people who disagree with us to the Gulag, yet. But we are encouraging employers to take away their livelihoods because of how they think. In a country dedicated to majority rule with a strong minority to check them, we are run by a minority and subjected to their opinions without the benefit of a proper check and balance system. Without that, dictators rule and opponents perish.

I leave you with this dire warning from John Adams, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Is that what we are witnessing now? Can we prevent it? I know two things: fear is the weapon, and silence is the enemy.

September 17, 2025: We Interrupt This Program

 Yet again, political violence has struck America. Charlie Kirk was murdered at a public speaking event a few days ago. I personally did not know much about Mr. Kirk. From what I have learned about him, I probably would have disagreed with him on almost every talking point. Yet, I mourn his loss and the loss to his young family through yet another senseless act of violence played out on the political stage. In a book written before I was born, Government By Assassination, the author outlined how the Japanese government reshaped itself into a despotic world power through a series of political murders. I think of that book in the context of today, and shudder.

Political violence in America is a serious problem. But are we really going to keep score? Making violence a political issue in the first place rachets up the rhetoric. Both sides are guilty. Remember, we watched January 6, 2021, unfold in real time, then saw our president pardon almost all the riotous conspirators. It seems hypocritical for people on the right to be pointing fingers at people on the left after the extreme and abominable act of one human being. When Paul Pelosi was attacked by a single person, I don't remember hearing Biden or any other fellow democrats calling for wide-spread investigations of anyone who did not automatically express sympathy for the then Speaker's husband or her.

88% of Americans oppose political violence. That opposition goes across the board. The Cato Institute reports that 54% of violent acts that qualify as politically motivated are done by people with extreme views on the Right. Yet the rhetoric we hear claims it is the Left that encourages violence. It is a glass house. Everyone should put down their stones.

I grew up in what I call the “We Interrupt This Program” generation. Every time our TV screens flashed that phrase, we knew someone had died, usually violently. I hope we aren't re-entering that era. The difference then was that our leaders sought to unify, heal, and lead us beyond our shock and grief, not throw kerosine on the flames with generalities and hate.

The scariest part of the aftermath to Charlie Kirk's assassination is a spreading message that everyone must mourn his loss regardless of their feelings about his views. People are being fired from their jobs for having an opinion that runs contrary to what our president and his cabinet members want us to think. When John Kennedy was murdered, most but not everybody mourned his death. That was their right. Charlie Kirk believed in his own right to free speech. He invited others to join him, to dialogue. He was robbed of that. It insults his memory to deny free speech to anyone else, regardless of how you feel about the speaker.

July 4, 2025: Happy Independence Day

 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same.”

-----Ronald Reagan

Happy Fourth of July! 249 years ago today, our founding fathers declared independence from one King and vowed never to have another. Our democracy, the Grand Experiment, has sputtered and chugged and pushed forward, ever learning, ever expanding, ever improving. I celebrate the journey. I worry that the journey may be reaching its end with a return to a time far removed from a nation built on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from want. America is a great nation. She never achieved greatness by moving backward, or even standing still.

I offer the observation of one of our founding fathers, perhaps the most revered American of all time, and the Man Who Would Not Be King. George Washington warned us, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Our right to free speech is the cornerstone of democracy. A loyal but vocal opposition is crucial to maintaining balance and holding back extremism on either side of the aisle.

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” Our forefathers spoke out. Loudly. Let us not forget our origins, but let us learn from them and keep moving forward. Loudly.