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Brian Kruger
Welcome to The Common Bridge. Rich, today we were going to do a mailbag, but in light of what happened yesterday with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I think we probably should talk about that instead, so we can push that mailbag off to a different time. It's 24 hours later. When it happened you and I were together actually. What are your thoughts a day after?
Richard Helppie
I will say my grief is intense, and it's intense not only for the family and the friends of Charlie Kirk, but I'm grieving for this country. Brian, we began The Common Bridge because of the partisan divide and the political polarization and extremism. And as you know, I've striven to find places that people can meet and agree and talk. We've identified the culprits that are driving this, and they're called the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the established media ecosystem that is designed to enrage people. It's designed to dehumanize people. We had the murder of the executive in New York. Nate Kaufman and I think United Healthcare is a horrible company with a very uncaring, anti-human business model. We've written about that, talked about that, but we need to make policy changes. Charlie Kirk; the people on the Right say, look, he is a free speech advocate. He was going out and carrying an agenda, and he was discussing policy, and country direction, and engaging with people. I don't know if he ever got testy with people. I've looked at dozens of videos and he's just talking to people the way we used to. Then I hear people on the Left saying, wait a minute, he was a bad guy: apparently somebody is alleging that he was against the Civil Rights Act, [other] people saying he was threatening trans people and the like. We've got one set of facts and at least two sets of reality, but it would seem that we could agree that there would be a better way to resolve the divide than guns, because once the killing starts, it's never the last one. It's not like, oh, well, this side shot that guy on that side, so now it's done. No, this is not the way these things end. Tribalism ends with the eradication of a tribe which means all the people are dead, the language is outlawed and wiped out, people are kicked out of their homes, their homes are burned to the ground, and they're gone; that's the way tribalism ends. Or there's dialog to end a war. Think about the great wars that ended: the Civil War of the United States ended at Appomattox Courthouse and that was over, World War II ended with the four great powers coming together to accept an unconditional surrender. It was discussion. Now this notion that one side can justify shooting someone on the other side... and look, to be fair - which we need to be - we've seen violence go both ways. I don't want to get into tit for tat; like your killing was better than my killing or something like that. That's just crazy. This is a time when the only message should be let's talk. Let's talk. Let's go into policy. We have great problems in this country and we have great opportunities. What's missing is a functioning political system that says we got hired - elected - to deal with health care, firearms, immigration, affordability, the economy, the quality of life in our cities, the freedoms that are enshrined. That's what we're here for. The fourth estate is supposed to hold those people we elect accountable. And look, the first media run went right down the partisan lines; Mr. Kirk had not yet died and there was a list of all the people: Gretchen Whitmer was a kidnap target, and Steve Scalise was shot on a ball diamond. One publication only listed those to the right of center and the other ones only listed those to the left of center. When you step back, it's everybody. I've read a lot; there are people that are coming out and they're absolutely condemning murder, absolutely condemning violence. What I'm listening for is will they turn to a better day, which is dialog. And what you hear on most - well, maybe not most, let me back up a little bit - too frequently you hear hey, this isn't okay, 'but.' Let me read something. This was actually written by a public school superintendent. I will not identify the individual. I will not give you a clue what state, where, whatever. Also, this individual, after getting a significant backlash, did modify their position. But here was the first take: "What happened at Utah State is not okay" - great, got to say that [then] very next thing - "But I am not surprised, because" - now, listen - "you cannot pitch a tent on a college campus and demean, insult, and prod at the lived experience of other human beings and be naive to the fact that every human being has a breaking point." So begins it with, it's not okay, but then, hey, you put a tent on a college campus and you engage in debate, which is captioned as demeaning, insulting and prodding. Everybody can make their own judgment on that. Then listen, here's the next part: "This close-minded man learned this lesson today in the worst way possible." He deserved it is what this is saying, there's no question. And this writer has a PhD. He knows the English language, knows what he's saying. Here's the next part. "I will send thoughts and prayers for his recovery," - he had not died yet - "but then I will hope and pray that he finds opportunity to reflect." A bullet in the neck is what this man deserved, according to this writer. And he says, "Let's be kinder and gentler to one another." Really? And so that's the backing off of [him saying] well, yeah, we shouldn't have shot him. And look — just within the last two weeks, someone posted from a bot account suggesting that maybe the so-called blue states could use nukes to contain the so-called red states, but upon the tragedy in Utah it was, well, hey, this is absolutely wrong. Now, as an optimist, I'm like, that's progress. This has gone too far, we've got to put an end to it. What I've consistently said on my program is this: we will keep getting these kinds of people in our legislatures, in our executive branch and our judiciary, as long as we keep accepting it. We will keep getting this established media ecosystem sending hate and drivel in narrative down to us as long as we keep consuming it. My plea to the listeners, the readers and the viewers of The Common Bridge is this, please, you're not going to win this debate, whether you're coming from the far right or the far left. I've said this umpteen times; nobody is going to drag a person from one edge all the way to the other and vice versa. But maybe we can find some place in the middle, and if we could start with free speech, I think the Civil Rights Act is a great thing. Apparently, Mr. Kirk said, "Well, it created a special class of citizens." I vehemently argue with that, because it eliminated barriers that created a sub-class of people that could not get public accommodations. We needed that legislation, and it was put in place by conservatives. So Charlie Kirk was out of step with traditional conservatism, if that's indeed what he said.
Brian Kruger
Well Rich, we can go down the list of some of the things, but he didn't like trans people and what about people celebrating JFK and Martin Luther King's death when it came out; I don't think that's the point.
Richard Helppie
Exactly that. So this is where human nature is bad. There were people that - I heard it with my own ears with Martin Luther King, it was horrible, it was one hundred percent racist; and JFK, I was a little young for that, but I do remember the day - I do know that people did celebrate that. It's nothing to celebrate because something will happen. As far as a trans person, and this is where... we've had trans people since the beginning of humankind, people get to pick how they want to present. It's life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and if your pursuit of happiness means you want to be what they call gender non-conforming, you've got my heartfelt support. Like my ninth grade civics teacher told me, your right to swing your arm ends at the point of the other guy's nose, so exercise your rights, respect other people's rights. Of course, we have a duty to children. We have a duty to facts. We have a duty to the truth. Trans people have lived in humankind and in the United States of America forever. There's a famous stagecoach driver that was very heroic, whose name I can't remember, and upon this person's death, it was discovered it was female, not a man. So this is not new. We don't need to find a reason to hate other people. We can’t stand by and let people that desperately need help not get it — where they escalate the violence until now the system will take them in and do something with the carnage that’s behind us. We need better choices on everything. I mean, think about immigration, millions and millions of people coming in, unvetted, uncovered, versus now we have armed people on our behalf going through neighborhoods and factories and Home Depot looking for people. We have the National Guard out. I'm against wanting open borders, and I don't like the idea of a police force randomly going in. We've got to have a better answer than those two extremes, period. And we can do this with the proviso — if the powers in our hands quit thinking, ‘your tribe is going to win,’ all it will mean is more carnage. Quit listening to the people that get you enraged, they've been lying to you. They've been lying to you for a long time. Turn them off. Find another human being and talk to them. And when you say murder is wrong, make sure the next thing out of your mouth isn't 'but.' We can do this America. We can do this human race. We're better than what's going on. Let go of the narrative. Let's join our hearts, our souls and every ounce of energy that we have to making this a more perfect union, just like we've been trying to do for several hundred years.
Brian Kruger
Rich, those are great comments, and I think we both welcome anybody who listens or reads or watches this particular episode to comment, comment online. We want to hear from you as well.
Richard Helppie
And the challenge is not to tell me why that other guy's wrong, but tell me how we can come together. If you're really far Left - it's not even Right and Left so much anymore, let's just say anti-MAGA person, you loath Donald Trump, and he gives us a lot of reasons to not like him - say you're one of those persons, go find a person that idolizes him and say, can we have a talk? And if you're a person that is a hard core MAGA or conservative, please go find somebody and have a conversation. When you're talking, both of you aren't allowed to use the narrative that's been fed to us. You can't use the sound bites, you can't use the shit that's put out on memes. You're going to put out what your experiences are. And if you think this is difficult, let me tell you something. It's in your own apartment building. It's on your block. It's the person next door. Quit avoiding each other, it's the person on your social media feed. Let's get rid of the haters. Let's get rid of the agendas. Let's do better. And Brian, right now I just need to say this: this is your host, Rich Helppie, promising a mailbag episode soon. Thank you so much for your correspondence. This is your host, Rich Helppie, signing off on The Common Bridge.
