Be loud. Speak up. The time for cowering before HR reps and your blue-haired cousin just for the sake of harmony is over.
For too long, we all kept quiet, saying what was necessary, not speaking our minds, just to get along at family dinners or to not get called out as a fascist at work. We're done with that now.
There's no more time or space to stay silent out of fear of retribution. The assassination of Charlie Kirk cannot be allowed to kill his message of open discourse and free debate.
We must all use our voices to speak where he no longer can. Bowing to untruth has led us into a dangerous, scary dead end road, and we have to turn around and get out of this place we're in.
We made Charlie speak truth on his own while we stayed quiet, keeping our courage bottled up, watching him get called names for it. Now we've seen him publicly assassinated for speaking truth.
We have let a loud minority of voices control discourse, tell us that our conservative views make us fascists, twist our words into pretzels to make them fit their definition of who and what we are. And we did it because it was the path of least resistance.
In 2021, I thought the truthful voices in America were meek and small, barely audible over the din of the leftist chaos that infiltrated every aspect of New York City life. I was wrong.
The first Turning Point event I attended that year revealed that there were so many of us, some in spangled cowboy hats and boots, others in body con dresses and platform heels, others in suits and ties, all of whom believed in the the future of our glorious nation and the necessity of honest, open debate.
Back home, perhaps we would be afraid to speak up about our conservative views in the face of incessant, thought policing, but at Turning Point, all together, it didn't seem like a risk to speak your mind, and with the risk removed we all did.
The risk now has never been greater. But we have to face it.
That energy has to become paramount, urgent, integral. New ideas are nothing to fear or become angry about, they are opportunities to hash things out with good nature, not by taking each others' heads off.
There is no more quarter for cowering beneath lies just because it's easier than standing up. No more being afraid of your friends and family trying to shame you, shun you, or bully you into shutting up.
Letting others control our speech, our thoughts, mitigate our actions—that comes to an end now, because there is absolutely no good reason that we shouldn't all have been speaking up, speaking truth, being honest and direct this whole time.
As we move forward from this unimaginable tragedy, we must bring courage with us, whether new found or reaffirmed. Be direct and forthright with a smile on your face.
Share your values in your actions, words, and deeds. If we all speak up together unflinchingly, if we all have that courage, they won't be able to take us all at once.
We are all Charlie and if we set ourselves to it and come together, there's nothing that can be done to silence us.
