You know, I'm one of those weirdoes who doesn't believe that 'climate change' is going to make mankind go extinct. I believe it is a good idea to take care of our planet and throw trash away and recycle and all that jazz, but I'm not on the 'climate change is going to kill us' bandwagon. I've seen too many of these predictions not come anywhere even close to fruition to believe any new ones. I just don't believe it is an 'existential crisis' like so many do.
But this morning, September 13th, 2025, I'm having something of an existential crisis, personally. As pretty much everyone knows, Charlie Kirk was ASSASSINATED on Wednesday. I was looking on instagram and was watching one of his videos and actually saw his death in front of my own eyes. When it happened, I was fast asleep because it was 3:23 a.m. in Seoul. So, he had already been dead for three hours by the time that I--very unfortunately--watched the video.
It was a traumatic scene for me, even though I was watching it online and 6,000 miles away. It was obvious that he was dead, although the news I read just afterward told me that he was clinging to life. Obviously, things didn't continue in that fashion. Charlie is dead.
And--even just with that information, this situation was devastating. Charlie was a person who was kind, smart, funny, and strove diligently to engage with EVERYONE from every political or religious background. He wantead to debate and help change minds and get people to see the truth. I realize that some of his detractors have hand-picked PARTS of his videos to make him look 'evil.' One of my American co-workers (a young girl, about 24) said on Thursday that she didn't think it was right that he was killed, but he "was evil', so..." Basically, that 'so ellipses' means, so it was justified.
CLEARLY, she didn't watch all his videos or she couldn't possibly have said that, right? But here is where the REAL problem comes for me. IMMEDIATELY, there were people like her (and some of my other co-workers) who were MUCH MORE vehement in their feelings about it. I saw videos of people actually dancing jubilantly, cheering, giggling, crowing, and showing actual JOY about his death.
I just DON'T understand. Joining with friends the night of his death and chanting into a bullhorn "We shot Charlie in the neck" in the round, clapping, dancing, and cheering? WHAT? ellipses WHAT?
How can SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many American people have such hate-filled hearts? It is astounding and appalling and devastating and HEART-BREAKING to see, especially because I--a 56 year-old American--have seen our nation do so much good in my time. I have seen us step up to the challenge to help not only our own citizenry, but also other humans from ALL OVER THE WORLD. I mean...HOW can we have stooped to this dog feces level?
We sent $3-4 BILLION to the survivors of the Christmas Day Thailand Tsunami. We sent hundreds of millions to the victims of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and I PERSONALLY saw (because I lived in Houston at the time) uncountable people stopped and--on the side of Highway 10--lowering their personal boats into the flood waters so they could row out to help people who were living in the flood devastated areas of Southeast Texas. We gave 1.8 Billion after the 2010 Haitian earthquake. AND we gave almost 7 Billion combined after the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina and 9/11. We can CLEARLY be people with amazing hearts and capacity for good toward others.
Yet, we, now--in 2025--have become a nation with half of her people CELEBRATING the death of a person, while at the same time demanding retribution on a police officer/brave citizens for stopping career criminal from continuing to harm others? We have become people who will donate to go-fund-me accounts for men who brutally murder strangers because of the color of their skin?
What has my country become? My existential crisis is this: I don't know what is happening to my great nation. What is wrong with her? Where have her morals gone? Where has her good-heartedness gone? Where is her 'fight-for-the-underdog' gone? Why does it feel as if we have become a stinking, steaming, hideous, pile of dog offal under the shoe of the world?
My identity is strongly rooted in being a Christian, a veteran, and an American. I feel such a deep loss. I feel a (weirdly) personal loss for Charlie Kirk, even though I never knew him. I think it is because I knew he was working to help save our nation. But I also feel a deeply disturbing and depressing loss of faith in my nation and her people. How have we become so angry, hate-filled, vicious, and murderous?
What have we become? WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?