Just over a year ago, in August 2024, I wrote an article in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. In it, I said that “our nation is at a crossroads. We can either go down the path of darkness and be further divided, or we can look to what unites us.”
Here I am just one year later, and I have never been more concerned about the direction of this great nation.
For the past two weeks, we have seen the face of unimaginable evil. Be under no illusion, my friends, there is evil stalking this country. It is pernicious; it seeps into every part of society, every institution, and it uses the language of violence and of the hard left to achieve its goal, to pit Americans against each other.
First, we have the appalling murder of two young children on their first day of school in Minnesota simply for the crime of being Catholic. I am reminded of John chapter 15 when Jesus says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
This murder was committed by a trans activist. Now, as a gay man myself, I think it is my duty to say that no one community should be demonized and that people have the right to express themselves legally. We have the First Amendment for a reason. This happened because this person was fed a diet of violence and hatred.
And who is feeding this diet of violence and hatred? Some of the media aided and abetted by radical leftists. How? By declaring that there was a “trans genocide” and by screaming about “fighting like hell.”
Let’s take the next example: the shocking, bloody murder of a young Ukrainian lady.
Her crime? Being white.
The media and the Democrat mayor of Charlotte tried to cover this up. If it wasn’t for Twitter/X users showing the video of this violent criminal, who had been in prison 14 times before, saying, “I got the white girl,” the whole heinous act could have been covered up.
This poor young lady in the prime of her life bled to death.
And what did the other transit users do? They simply looked away or got off at the next stop. This poor girl, thousands of miles away from home, was bled out at the hands of a vicious, violent criminal who had no business being on our streets.
And who let this man out? The radical leftists running Charlotte are aided and abetted by sections of the media. How? By talking about restorative justice.
Indeed, there have been leftists saying this is all down to the USA not having universal free health care.
No doctor, no amount of pills can stop that level of evil, and this man should have been behind bars.
Jasmine Crockett, the radical leftist in Texas, dared to say that “this was a random dead person.”
Now we come to the murder of Charlie Kirk. His crime? Daring to have an opinion. Charlie Kirk never used foul language, and he never personally attacked people. He simply wanted to engage in debate.
And yet again, what happened? Fueled by hatred, his killer used bullets that had anti-fascist talking points on them and again has been indoctrinated by the idea that there is a “trans genocide.”
Charlie was killed for being a Christian.
And how did this happen? Some of the media and the left are screaming “Nazi,” “fascist” at everyone who dares have an opinion.
When you declare everyone you don’t like as a Nazi or a fascist, then you are encouraging people who are mentally ill, who are struggling, to resort to violence.
And the left has been doing this for years. In 2012, Mitt Romney was accused of killing cancer patients; beforehand, George W. Bush was treated as the devil incarnate, and we all know how much the left now screams fascist at every single Republican.
What is fascist, my friends, is shooting people who have a different political belief than you.
Charlie Kirk passionately believed in the First Amendment, not in silencing debate.
Let us appeal to our better angels. Let us stop screaming “Nazi” and “fascist” at everyone who disagrees with us. Let us reject the language of violence. Let us reject the notion that violent criminals shouldn’t be locked away for good.
We owe it to the victims of this recent spate of violence to remember that we are supposed to be One Nation Under God with Liberty and Justice for all.
I still believe in the promise of America, and I pray that you do, too.
Neil Fitzgerald is an international nonprofit leader having served in the U.S., U.K. and globally for various nonprofit and charity boards. He served as a conservative council member in the U.K. and as a campaign manager. “Right Here, Right Now” appears on Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.