But first . . .
Robert Redford was everything good about America. A quiet hero. Though not as tall as you might think.
He will live on through his films, his Sundance Institute, and his environmental work.
It’s so very sad to see him go.
And now . . .
My brilliant friend David Blumberg — who steered me toward a venture investment years ago that returned 40X — posts:
Hi (anonymized Harvard classmate),
I know you to be a smart, kind and caring person.
However, in this case you are almost entirely wrong in your characterization of Charlie Kirk. I knew him personally very well. He visited my home and office multiple times. I’ve given repeated donations to his Turning Point USA. He’s been in my office and home to speak with delegations of interested, intelligent, politically active people to discuss how to build a better future for all Americans.
Charlie Kirk was a loving person. He was not a violent person. He believed in and practiced free speech. He let his debating partners have their say and ask him any questions. He was civil and sought out rational dialogue with those with whom he disagreed.
Charlie knew I was gay; no big deal. He had other gay friends, donors and employees. He also knew that I was not Christian and he had many non-Christian friends, donors and employees as well. He had friends, donors and employees of every color and many nationalities as well.
Charlie had a positive vision for individuals and for America: it could be summarized as: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Charlie was a constitutionalist. He was a devout Protestant Christian. I respect all of those beliefs and traits. He was also entrepreneurial, charismatic, a great family man and very humorous.
Charlie was not a hater. He was not violent. He was anti-fascist, meaning he believed in individual liberty and limited government. He loved that the American ideal was small government and big citizens. He was very kind. He was not racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic, or any of the other charges leveled by his leftist antagonists.
He was, however, very effective, and that’s why the organized leftist power structure didn’t like him.
The snippets you have cited are mostly taken out of context, deeply misleading, or just plain wrong. I wish you could’ve known Charlie Kirk as well as I did. You and he would’ve disagreed on many political policy issues, and that’s fine. I also think you and I disagree on many public policy issues, but I still would consider you a friendly acquaintance, a very kind person, a valued classmate and a wonderful human being.
The world is deeply worse off because of his political assassination. I hope you and others will read his work more deeply and come to understand the wonderful human being that he was. Try with something easy – read his new book about observing the Sabbath which will be published posthumously. Charlie learned about Shabbat from Dennis Prager, a non-Christian.
I would urge a bit more grace and compassion for his ideas as well as those that you hold dear. We each have important things to say, we all believe things somewhat differently. We need to show more tolerance and greater respect for people with different ideas (expressed with respect and civility) rather than demonizing others so harshly.
Isn’t this exactly the kind of civil discourse we need more of? Not Trump’s “I’d like to punch him in the face”; rather, a thoughtful attempt to see the best in each other, find common ground where we can, agree to disagree where we can’t.
I love Jerry Seinfeld’s line when George, peeved about something, complains, “Some people!” and Jerry responds, “Yeah. People! They’re the worst.” But most people do have a good side if you give us half a chance. (No, really, Carl, I do! And I know you do, too.)
And most people agree we need to resist attempts to divide us.
Some of those attempts come straight from Putin’s psy-ops teams. Most, though, are domestic, designed simply to raise money (Urgent! Save America! Your donation matched 10X by midnight!) or else to grab your attention to generate ad revenue.
That isn’t to say alternative facts are just as good as real ones, or that we don’t face the greatest threat to our democracy in 250 years. (The animating force of the Civil War wasn’t toppling democracy, it was preserving slavery.)
So, for sure:
> Join Indivisible.
> Join millions in peaceful protest October 18.
> Support “my” dinner even if you can’t come, because to win (and as you saw yesterday, we are winning), one of the things we need is an adequately funded opposition party.
But also check out Braver Angels, “the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.”
Because it’s important to keep in mind that, as awful as Trump is, most of our neighbors who support him are not. Nor are they reaping billions, as he is, from his presidency. Indeed, most of them see prices rising and jobs harder to find. Trump promised them all “great health care” “at a tiny fraction of the price” and nine years later has developed as-yet secret “concepts of a plan.” The most concrete actions he’s taken on health care are to kill medical research that could have saved your life and to install as health czar a clear menace to public health.
Sorry. Almost anything sets me off — which is true of most of us these days, whether on the right or the left.
The over-arching point: We really do need to save America. A house so deeply divided against itself cannot long stand.
Putin is thrilled.
We can’t let him win.
Read the full article here
