A Requiem for Liberty

This should not need to be said, but seeing how common sense is severely lacking, I should start by saying I condemn the shooting that occurred on the grounds of Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. Even though I think the individual who lost his life was a horrible person who harmed many people with his rhetoric and contributed to the violence and radicalization that led to his death, he should not have been murdered.

Perhaps it is because gun violence has finally struck down one of their own (a seemingly straight, white, cisgender, “Christian” male) and they are beginning to realize they are not, in fact, untouchable, but the conservative right wing party has completely lost their shit. The GOP and their puppet followers have been mercilessly attacking anyone who expresses anything except sorrow over this death. Largely baseless accusations of celebrating the violent manner he died have been met with attempts at silencing, shaming, censoring, and—in the most extreme cases—terminating employment of those who express their dislike of the individual and what he spent his career advocating for.

This most recent act of violence is nothing new or special, but it has cracked the foundation of our rights and freedoms wider than the Liberty Bell. The government is actively pressuring and censoring media outlets and personalities who say anything they find distasteful. Politicians are using thinly veiled threats against public universities to suspend or terminate staff who exercise their freedom of speech. The ultimate irony is, of course, the Republicans are wailing about how this man was killed for using his First Amendment rights, yet they are actively violating the rights of others who refuse to cry for the bastard.

In a healthy, functioning democracy, you cannot do these things simply because someone hurt your feelings or said something you did not like. If we could, the current president would have been silenced long ago since everything he posts on Truth Social—and Twitter before that—is a repugnant, offensive lie. An individual has the right to say, “I’m happy he’s dead” and should suffer no repercussions. Is it in bad taste? Yes. Does it offend people? Absolutely. Do I have the right to say it? Yes, I fucking do. It is not obscene, and it is not going to cause imminent harm; therefore, I am protected under the Constitution.

Unfortunately for the citizenry of the United States, democracy is deathly ill. She is on life support and is slipping further away each day. The warning sirens sounded November 8, 2016, when he won his first term, but in my opinion, the death knells truly began January 6, 2021, when through an act of domestic stochastic terrorism, the sitting president of the United States incited an attempted coup on the government as he ordered his devotees to march on the U.S. Capitol and to “fight like hell.” With the installation of lackeys, loyalists, and cunning opportunists looking to take advantage of a frail, feeble minded fool, the rights we all took for granted have been eroded. We can no longer rely on our courts to  consistently protect us. The system of checks and balances is all but gone. The state of the Union is quite bleak.

That is not to say all hope is lost. There are still judges and politicians who understand the promise of what we could be. There are ordinary citizens speaking out, protesting, and organizing to (nonviolently) fight back against the gross injustices and tyranny we are suffering. Together, we must fight with everything we have to keep ourselves alive and create a society that serves everyone.