09/11/25
Good morning! It’s Thursday, September 11th.
National Make Your Bed Day.
No no. I mean, apparently it is but what a wild way to open the show! Imagine! Today is, of course, the 24thanniversary (anniversary?) of 9/11, the deadliest terrorist attack not only in the country but in the world.
2,753 died as an immediate result of the attack, but that number does not include those who died by suicide or as a result of the illnesses that came with breathing in the poison in the air in the days and weeks and months that followed.
That includes those who lived there and those first responders who came from all over the country, all over the world, and ran INTO the danger. Ran into the smoke and ash.
The Trump administration being what it is, the program that provides free healthcare for first responders and survivors has been cut and restored and cut again. Because sure – So if you want, check out the International Association of Firefighters at iafffoundation.org where you can donate to programs that support firefighters.
And now, the news.
Denver College Shooting
We start how we start in America, with three students critically injured, including the shooter, after the suspect opened fire just before 12:30p on the Evergreen High School campus, just outside of Denver.
It’s unclear how the suspect was shot, as a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said she didn’t believe law enforcement fired any rounds.
A fourth person was transported to the hospital with as-yet unknown injuries.
A motive is not yet known.
Charlie Kirk
-via CNN
And of course the other headline was the, frankly shocking, news that Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and ultra-right wing commentator that Donald Trump credits with getting him the youth vote, was shot and killed in what is being called a political killing on Wednesday afternoon, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley College.
My best friend Zazz, (who, as you may be aware, was the one who asked me to make this show in the first place) said she was curious to see how I covered this story and I said “very carefully.”
Because here’s the thing. Let’s start with some basics. Very obviously political violence of all kinds is wrong. What am I supposed to do? Come out of the story I just said, and then come into this one and say well we know his politics so it’s different…
Political violence of all kinds is wrong.
It is also absolutely… interesting, we can say interesting. It is absolutely interesting that Donald Trump is having the flags lowered in Kirk’s honor but made no effort when Minnesota House Rep Melissa Hortman, as well as her husband, we killed, and others were hunted and attempts were made on their lives, in June.
The Yankees held a moment of silence for him and put a picture of him on their Jumbotron.
I mean, I do think we can all chill out a little. He wasn’t an elected politician; he was a political influencer.
From behind the Resolute Desk, Trump called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom.”
And look, people live the lives they live. They leave the legacies they leave. Charlie Kirk led a life where, for the people that knew about him, there are very few people who feel middle of the road about what happened on Wednesday.
But what we know for sure is that we are, as we have been, at a tipping point. And even if not everyone will, even if the president won’t, we need to turn the temperature down. Even just between us.
5% nicer.
5% plus 5% plus 5%.
Just to see.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Because I think we just need to take a break.
Go outside. See the sky. Touch the grass.
We’ll get back into it tomorrow.
I’m proud of you.