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Severe Outflow by R. Edwards

Charlie Kirk’s Murder, Response and Legacy

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As somebody who was born four floors above and four years after JFK’s murdered body was rushed into the ER in futility, who was immersed in knowledge of his assassination throughout childhood, and who has studied it extensively, along with the killings of RFK and MLK, I know a bit about political violence. We seem to be back into that sort of terrible era again with two attempts on Trump, a couple of state-legislator killings by a sicko in Minnesota, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month. [This occurred on my flight to Hawaii for Kilauea Episode 33…more on that later.]

Charlie leaves behind a lovely young widow, Erika, and their two little kids, all because some deranged radical didn’t like his ideals. Must it be this way?

Political violence is evil, absolutely intolerable, and has no place in civil society. Disagreements and grievances should be aired through rational debate and discussion, with logic, reason, facts, and the humility that comes with not having all the answers. That is a nonpartisan statement.

So far, I’ve seen posts from men, women, people of different faiths, nationalities, backgrounds and appearances, mourning the loss of Charlie Kirk. Let their voices ring truest—none I’ve read yet more well-written under intense personal grief than Dennis Prager’s (below), who knew Charlie as a brilliant mind, faithful servant of God, and also, husband and father to a young family.

As an American, as a Jew, and as Dennis, I am devastated at the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The truth is, as I write these words, I can’t believe I am writing them. I am in the denial stage of mourning. As an American, we have lost the most articulate spokesman for America and its unique value system—a country founded to be free, based on Jerusalem and Athens, the Judeo-Christian value system and the Greek emphasis on logic and reason. Charlie was a uniquely gifted individual who, in his teens, created the largest movement of young Americans committed to preserving and growing America and its ideals. He tirelessly went from campus to campus, from Oxford to Utah, dialoging with any student who wished to debate him. Using his vast reservoir of facts and his exceptionally speedy and articulate mind, he gave them what seemed to be unlimited amounts of time, and then calmly eviscerated all their anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Judeo-Christian positions. I watched an inordinate number of these exchanges and thanked God that Charlie Kirk was there to do this work. America’s youth in particular have lost a moral and intellectual leader, one who would, perhaps, have one day become their president. As a committed Jew, I thank God regularly that a non-Jew, a committed Christian, became one of the few great public spokesmen on behalf of Israel and the Jewish communities outside of Israel. Few Jews could match Charlie’s knowledge and eloquent arguments on behalf of those two entities.

As Dennis, I have lost a very close friend. Charlie repeatedly visited me in the various hospitals that I have been in since November 12 of last year, when I suffered a catastrophic fall which has left me paralyzed. When members of the nursing staff heard that Charlie Kirk was visiting me, my room became the most popular one in the hospital. Charlie brought me the manuscript of his forthcoming book arguing that everyone—Christians as well as Jews—should observe Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, just as he and his family had begun to do from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. It is a measure of our close relationship that he dedicated the book to me. His brilliant exposition of these arguments provide clear evidence for the non-necessity of a college education for most young Americans.

My heart breaks for his young widow, Erika, and for his two children, who have lost as great a man and a father as children can have. And for Charlie, who did not live to see them grow up. For one of the first times in my 20 years with my wife, Sue, I have seen her sob uncontrollably. The Prager home is in deep mourning, as are the homes of countless Americans. The loss to us personally and to the country generally is immeasurable.

Commentator Ivyonna Corrine had a brilliant post too, which I’ll also reproduce below, corrected for punctuation and grammar:

It’s wild to me how quick people are to slap labels on Charlie Kirk without actually knowing what he stands for. He’s been called racist…but where is the evidence? Go back through his years of speaking at college campuses, podcasts, interviews, debates, you won’t find him using racial slurs, degrading a race, or promoting hate. Not once. What you will find is him debating issues like immigration, education, the economy… and culture. Those are policy discussions, NOT racism.

Calling him racist because you don’t like his politics is lazy. It waters down the meaning of the word and takes away from the fight against actual racism. If someone truly believed he was racist they would be able to show proof. But they can’t, because it doesn’t exist. All they have is name calling.

He’s had thousands of open conversations on college campuses with people of every background, and guess what? The majority of those exchanges end with respect, even if they disagree. He’s been called sexist, but why? Because he’s pro life? Because he believes men and women are different? Having a conviction about protecting unborn children or recognizing biological differences doesn’t make you sexist. It means you are willing to stand for life and truth even when it’s unpopular.

He’s been called homophobic/transphobic, but again, where’s the proof? Saying “men can’t become women” is not hate on his part. It’s biology. Protecting kids from being pushed into irreversible decisions isn’t hate. It’s compassion. He has debated LGBTQ+ issues face to face without name calling, without hate, with facts.

He’s been called a fascist/Nazi, which is honestly laughable. Fascism silences speech. Charlie has spent his entire career defending free speech. Nazis took away rights, and Charlie advocates every day for the protection of rights in the Constitution. The comparison doesn’t even make sense.

He’s been called a bigot or accused of spreading hate, but what is hateful about encouraging young people to think critically, question government, and protect their freedoms? If you actually listen, he debates respectfully, and even when people scream at him he holds himself fully. That’s not hate, that’s self control.

And he’s been accused of spreading misinformation, but here’s the thing: every time people try to “fact check” him, the debates usually end with the person walking away because they can’t answer his questions. He brings data, statistics and constitutional backing. That’s not misinformation, that’s inconvenient truth.

At the end of the day, Charlie Kirk was not racist. He was not sexist. He was not hateful. He was bold. He was outspoken. And he was unafraid to say the things that needed to be said in a world where people get canceled for speaking how WE FEEL and the truth. He’s allowed his thoughts, just as in America you are too. So if you’re going to label him at least label him correctly: unapologetically American.

Let voices like these drown out those demonic cackles of celebration sprinkled over social media. The overtly diabolical celebrators are obvious. Block and move on if it helps, but do pray for the expulsion of their demons.

Perhaps more insidious are the passive-aggressive folks—some even labeling themselves as fellow Christians—who assigned Charlie such wholly unfounded labels as Ivyonna covered, based on weak and out-of-context interpretations and assumptions, but not actual hard evidence, who haven’t read his literature nor seen multiples of his videos, who talk often about tolerance, love, kindness and empathy without showing those qualities toward Christian conservatives, and who are showing two faces.

When people reveal themselves from behind the mask of virtue signaling and faux tolerance and “empathy”, pay attention. Observe, be watchful, and pray for them. A mask of kindness and empathy, hiding a mindset of the very opposite, reveals itself in such times as these. Charlie wasn’t perfect. None of us are free of sin. That includes me. I certainly recognize sin when I see it, and I see a lot of stones being cast Charlie’s way from behind those “kindness and empathy” facades.

To all fellow conservatives/libertarians who are infuriated, feeling helpless in the face of this and other recent violence, tempted to lash out: I get it. This enrages me as well. But remember who Charlie followed: Jesus. And remember how Charlie both followed and set a great example in taking obvious risk to go into hostile atmospheres to engage through dialog and ideas. Never resort to true hate (not the same as the false equivalency of hate and disapproval continually posited by the left), destruction or retaliation in kind. Be better than those psychopathic ghouls and mouth-foaming zealots of the left who readily could be found celebrating or rationalizing evil, across social media in the days following the killing. They need urgent psychological treatment, and most of all, they need to find the Lord, who ultimately will be the final judge of all events and people.

Finally, for 50 years, I’ve read and watched great speeches by political figures from antiquity through the men on Mount Rushmore, to Churchill, Reagan and beyond. This, from Utah Governor Spencer Cox, has come out of nowhere to take its place among the very best, not only for the transcribable text, but for the raw and unvarnished sincerity plainly apparent behind the wise words. For context in posterity, I linked not just to the video, but a local news story containing it.

We all could do well to heed. As I’ve stated in some recent comment: Freedom of speech under threat of violence is not freedom at all.

Rest in Heaven, Charlie. We can honor his legacy, and that of other nonviolent agents of change like MLK and Jesus, by fighting bad ideas not with violence and destruction, but with better ideas.

Now Do You Believe Left-wing Hate is Real?

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Yesterday’s shooting at a Congressional baseball practice, aimed specifically at Republicans, finally should bring to the forefront the real phenomenon of left-wing hatred and violence. Not only that, but so should certain reactions to it.

Scan the social-media feeds of your left-wing friends yesterday and you’ll find this sort of expression commonly.

Do you see the psychological tactic at work there? Do not fall for it. I won’t. The reason is that you won’t see it from the very same people’s feeds after the Dylan Roof or Gabby Giffords incidents. The reason is that they want to use emotionally manipulative statements such as the above, only after evil acts by fellow left-wingers, in order to stifle balanced discussion and keep it imbalanced — toward the left’s portrayal of its own victimhood, of course.

In reality, the left is intensely hypocritical when it accuses conservatives of all manner of ugly complicity in bad deeds committed by the “right wing”. Then when fellow leftists riot (Ferguson, Baltimore or Portland anyone?), attack others at political rallies (San Jose anyone?) run GOP politicians of the road (Wendi Wright in Tennessee), and commit other horrible crimes (e.g., yesterday in suburban Virginia, firebombing of the North Carolina GOP office, shooting at Family Research Council by a “gay rights” supporter), the same faction turns around and tries to shush discussion of such acts in the name of “unity” and preventing “division”. Stop it. I’m not going to let you get away with having your cake and eating it too. I have been around, and can see through those mind games like a pane of glass.

The above sort of faux-conciliatory pandering is not a coincidence. With some welcomed and unusual exceptions, the left wing does not want you to know, nor discuss, evil committed by its own. So tonight, I’ll help to take up that role of being informative of what you need to see about how the world works.

If you have sensitive eyes and don’t like seeing people express profane and ugly things toward others, please stop now and put your head firmly back in the sand. Maybe dream of fuzzy bunnies and unicorns crapping Skittles.

Now the rest of us proceed with reality, and boys and girls: the reality that evil exists — including plenty arising from the sociopolitical left, and I am about to prove this. There is no need to show right-wing examples because they are are so quickly and loudly brought to bear in mass media; instead, this is a skeletal and meager attempt to balance it out with a ridiculously tiny sampling from the other side. Then don’t forget to read my disclaimers and closing statements at the bottom.

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Unfortunately, scanning the feeds yesterday reveals more examples than I could count of explicit hate and even condoning of violence toward the right. Here is but one example — a thinly disguised, passive-aggressive call from a Huffington Post writer for the left to murder conservatives:

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That, from the same violence advocate and hatemonger who penned the following, a screen-capture of something to which I will not link directly.

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When a reasonable left-winger (yes, I am acknowledging they exist!) tries to correct his evil-spewing comrades, this is a remarkably honest (if still hateful) response. At least we know exactly where he stands; it’s the dishonest ones and fakers you really have to watch.

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Such advocacy of violence surely does not adhere to Martin Luther King Jr.’s relatively recent teachings regarding nonviolence, not to principles espoused before that by Jesus and M. Gandhi. More, from 2016:

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This isn’t a hate tweet, but documents plenty of it from the left. [Understand that anti-conservative venom and violence and censorship at universities is not limited to Berkeley either.]

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Consider a few out of hundreds or more hate tweets directed at Antonin Scalia after his death:

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Not only is this left-wing expression hateful personally, but blatantly racist:

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Speaking of hate directed at racial-minority conservatives, look what happened to Mia Love’s Wikipedia page several years ago…so much for “tolerance” and “inclusion”:

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Former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s death even brought forth the liberal hate — much of it from people who weren’t even old enough to remember her directly. How did their minds get filled with this awful poison? Who educated them that such hate was okay?

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Twitchy documented many hate tweets and death threats against the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, some of which still haven’t been removed by Twitter.

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Remember a year ago when a boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo? Left-wing animal worshipers couldn’t wait to spew the venom.

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These are far from “isolated” or “unrepresentative” incidents either. Do you want more, from these and innumerable other news events? I could have posted countless many; you can find them if you try, and it is not difficult. One easily could look back through public-facing social-media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), and find thousands — thousands! — out of far, far more, of such despicable left-wing hate speech and threats.

DISCLAIMER 1: Again, this is not to deny similar vitriol exists elsewhere on the ideological spectrum, nor to “score points”, so don’t falsely portray this as such. Regardless, right-wing hate will be publicized readily, whereas left-wing hate is less-advertised unless an incident as seemingly shocking as yesterday’s forces it to the front page. Therefore I simply show you examples, in the name of bringing balance to the discussion that needs to be had. Leftist evil is real. If you still don’t believe in leftist evil, ask the relatives of the tens of millions of victims of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. Leftist ideologies led to the deaths of more people in the 20th century than any others (more even than the comparably evil-minded ideals of Fascism or extreme Islam!), and it’s not even close. It’s not over either; consider the wreckage of Venezuela and the human-rights horrors in North Korea and Cuba.

DISCLAIMER 2: For the record, I am not contributing to division. No, the division is already there. I am simply bearing witness to it, showing it to you — the same as if a huge crocodile were stalking you at the riverside and I made you turn around to see it. That is not the same as causing the crocodile, and this isn’t the same as “contributing to the problem”. What you do with this newfound knowledge is your responsibility and yours alone — not mine. I categorically reject any form of blame for others’ chosen behavior, so don’t waste your time trying. Instead, face the reality above, accept that it is real, then set about doing something about it. Or that crocodile of evil thought will eat more and more of us…

MOTIVATION: In order to bring light into darkness, you need to know that the darkness exists, and have some idea of how dark it is. If you have a conscience, yet only saw evil on the right and not on the left, you are enlightened now regarding the left’s capacity for evil. If you do not have such a conscience, then all I can say is: reasoning with psychopathy is beyond my pay grade. Seek help, for the sake of us all.

Yes, I love my neighbor. Sometimes that means tough love. So, digital neighbor, that is what I have given you here: a small peek into the reality of brokenness and sin as it stands today, and as such, a dose of tough love.

Is all hopeless? Not at all! Please be assured by this: the only eternal and unyielding Light, the only one who can totally and permanently overcome hate from all sides, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus. He can and will protect and forge you in the face of evil, give you the strength and courage to acknowledge it and stare it down, and back you up in the struggle against it, every step of the way. Start from there, proceed, and you will be on the right track. Or try to ignore or go it alone in futility. That is your God-given, free-will choice.

The Myth of the Goodness of Humanity

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I’ve often heard of the “goodness of humanity”, as if this is congenital and dominant in our natures. Really? I say that’s a bunch of Utopian crap–a delusional, insular, Pollyanna, head-in-sand worldview that ignores blatantly obvious reality.

There’s a reason toddlers in the sandbox take more than give. We have to learn civilized behavior. Some never do, at least to legal or tolerable levels; the rest of us learn, but choose to ignore the lessons when convenient.

It’s this simple: If humanity were fundamentally good, we wouldn’t have to be taught how to behave! We would just be benevolent, kind and loving, instinctively. Alternatively, if we need to be taught specific methods to express that “innate goodness”, individuals wouldn’t revert to barbaric, selfish, greedy, violent, shortsighted, lazy basis that resides in us all.

My temptation here is to call our behavior animalistic, but that does great injustice to most animals I’ve known. Are there good people? You bet, but fundamentally, we as a civilization suck at morals and ethics.

Furthermore, if humanity fundamentally were good, if we truly lived the ethics of excellence, service, integrity, self-restraint, and delayed gratification, then these things would not happen:

Ruminate on those a bit. Read, then re-read. Let those sink in. Then consider that it’s just a tiny, tiny fraction of the real world, and just over the last few months of time. Most crimes, for example, are never prosecuted; most bad deeds by friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives never make headlines. It can be depressing if you let it. I choose not to, because we have free choice in both our behavior and our attitudes.

The purpose of this is not to offer specific solutions to all of humanity’s problems. That’s too large of an endeavor, obviously, just by the tip-of-iceberg sampling represented above. I’ve offered some solutions throughout the history of this BLOG, and periodically will propose more…but never could cover them all. No, instead, the point of this entry is simple and straightforward–to hit you with reality and reject the notion that “human nature” is basically good. What you do with that reality is, of course, your choice.

Can people do good and great things in spite of their fundamental self-centeredness? Absolutely! Indeed, most of us do. For example, many of us who are parents sacrifice time, money, and effort for our kids because we love them and care about their well-being. Our soldiers, sailors and airmen enlisted voluntarily and make great sacrifice to serve our country. Individually, we’re there for our best friends, and so on. Unless you are sociopathic, you can and have done some commendable good for people. This is not an indictment of the right things you or I have done–but instead, an acknowledgment of the evil around us (and to at least a small extent, in all of us).

Most folks lead double lives, balancing their sinful and generous sides–sometimes within the same minute. Have you ever abused anyone, anytime, verbally or physically, for any reason? Then you acted with deliberate malice toward another. Have you used addicting substances, then told a child or friend not to? Then you hold a double standard. Have you advocated a sociopolitical position beneficial to your self-interest but detrimental in some way to others (taxpayers)? Then you are putting self above country. Have you criticized greedy bankers and/or governmental profligacy while racking up discretionary credit-card debts or otherwise mismanaging your own personal finances? Then you’re just spouting cheap, hollow talk and not living according to your own rules.

Have you told a “little white lie” or pretended not to be displeased, just to spare someone “hurt feelings”? Then you have committed dishonesty, regardless of the motivation. Maybe you rationalize that lie as the lesser of two evils. Well, guess what: even the lesser of evils is still evil! To me, relativism doesn’t excuse wrongdoing. I’m sure many of the people involved in those events above similarly would rationalize, if on grander scales. “I only beat up one little wimp for his money…I could have killed him instead!”

History has countless examples of greatness over evil. Some people have performed tremendously beneficial and good acts, regardless of their imperfections. Famously benevolent figures such as Lincoln, M.L. King, and Mother Teresa–all of whom would freely admit they were far from pure even in their uncommon service to others–come to most folks’ minds straightaway. Obviously, for us Christians, Jesus represents the ultimate example of this, as the only sin-free human, knowing he was eternally blessed but nonetheless laying his physical life on the line in an agonizing manner for the sake of all who wish to experience the ultimate glory of God, eternally. That’s a free choice, of course.

Free will is what we have. Most of us (including yours truly) have done some dumb things with that, just not dumb enough to have been killed or jailed. Those whose deeds led to the headlines above took it to egregious extremes and did not get away.

Let me be clear on this: I am far from perfect. I don’t hold others to higher standards for behavior or effort than myself. That’s the essence of the Golden Rule, remember? However, nobody is harder on me than I am; and my standards are high. I demand excellence and integrity from myself first, then from others, knowing perfection isn’t possible and I sometimes screw up and fail to deliver the goods sufficiently.

When I call out somebody–or society at large–remember, it is rooted in the very same expectations I have for myself…nothing more. It is most certainly not “passing judgment”, it is demanding high standards and holding people accountable. If you don’t know the difference, learn the difference. Accountability is the enforcement arm of integrity. In oneself, accountability is known as “conscience”.

Make a mistake? Okay, we all do sometimes. Do something about it! Get up, dust off, admit and atone for the error, then learn from it so you will not choose to make it happen again. [And yes, mistakes are chosen!] Don’t act like you’re entitled. Humble yourself in genuine remorse before those you’ve wronged (most of all, before God, if you are religious, as nothing is hidden from Him).

Finally, consider again that if everybody were to demand excellence, service, integrity, self-restraint and delayed gratification from themselves, then much of humanity’s problems would be minimal, and the headlines above would not happen! The only thing holding civilization together is the collective mass of still-imperfect individuals who do have such expectations, first of self, then of their children, friends, and associates. That mass seems to be shrinking in influence…

Reality is that humanity is and will remain fundamentally selfish, and as such, the greatest and only eternal answer is outside ourselves. In the face of the pervasive wrongness all around, and sometimes within, there is hope…and it’s not in our own natures.