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Except those parents won’t get to forget. They won’t get to move on because somebody else has decided the conversation is over. So before anyone tells me this is just another tragedy, understand something. A tragedy is something terrible that happens.

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A parent will have to face the unbearable fact that the person they would have died to protect is gone. And tomorrow, the sun will rise. The buses will run. The news will move on. People will disagree, argue and forget.

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What kind of freedom requires a five year old to risk their life to get an education? There is no answer that makes that acceptable. Somewhere tonight, a child’s bedroom will remain untouched. A little pair of shoes will sit by the door.

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I don’t want another carefully staged moment of silence. I want to know why we keep asking children to live with dangers the adults in charge refuse to confront. And I don’t want to hear that this is simply the price of freedom.

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What does it say about us when we can absorb this news between a weather report and an advertisement, feel sad for thirty seconds, and carry on with our day? I don’t want another politician telling me how deeply disturbed they are. I want to know what they’re willing to change.

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And that might be the most horrifying part of all. The children are dead. But the rest of us are in danger of losing something, too: our ability to be horrified. What does it say about a country when a dead five year old is no longer enough to bring it to its senses?

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We have turned the deaths of children into a political debate. We have turned grieving parents into familiar faces on the news. We have made school shootings so routine that people are already reaching for the same tired words before the blood has even dried.

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We have a country full of adults who will scream themselves hoarse defending their political positions, but when children are gunned down in a place built for learning, we somehow can’t muster the courage to do whatever it takes to stop this happening again.

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Maybe you reminded them to grab their backpack. Maybe they complained about breakfast. Maybe you told them you loved them and promised you’d see them after school. You were supposed to see them after school. Instead, you’re facing a future you never agreed to live.

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Shooter kills four at Oregon elementary school and is shot dead by citizen

At five, you’re still learning how to tie your shoes. You still need someone to cut your food. You fall asleep in the car on the way home. You believe the adults in your life can protect you from just about anything. Imagine being the parent who dressed that child Thursday morning.

reuters.com

A 16-year-old shooter opened fire on Thursday at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing four people including three children before being killed by an armed person who had pursued the assailan...

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It looks like cruelty wearing a cross, waving an American flag, and demanding that the rest of us call it holy. God doesn’t need a political adviser to turn an execution into a religious event. But apparently, MAGA needs one to explain why cruelty is Christian.

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then perhaps it’s time to put down the flag, close the Bible, and ask yourself what the hell you’re actually worshipping. Because from where I’m standing, this doesn’t look like the teachings of Jesus.

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Calling something God’s will doesn’t magically wash the cruelty off your hands. And if your version of Christianity leaves you more excited about a firing squad than you are about feeding hungry children, helping the poor, comforting the grieving, or showing mercy,

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If you need to invoke God to justify your appetite for watching someone die, maybe the problem isn’t that God has commanded it. Maybe the problem is you. I’m sick of people using religion as a moral costume. Being loud about God doesn’t make you good.Carrying a Bible doesn’t make you compassionate.

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Trump can contradict their supposed values a dozen times before breakfast, and they’ll still find a way to call him God’s chosen man. Now an execution gets dressed up as God’s command, and we’re supposed to nod along like this is perfectly normal Christian behavior.

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He did not build a political movement around humiliating people, worshipping power, and cheering when somebody dies. But MAGA has managed to turn Christianity into something that looks suspiciously like a political fan club with a Bible on the merchandise table.

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Jesus spent his time with the outcasts, the sinners, and the people respectable society wanted nothing to do with. He preached mercy. He challenged religious hypocrites. He warned people about their own cruelty and self righteousness.

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You don’t have to defend the crimes of a convicted killer to recognize that celebrating a human being’s death as a religious spectacle is grotesque. Justice and bloodlust are not the same thing. The law can punish someone without turning their death into a televised event for people to cheer.

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Apparently, loving your neighbor is optional. Compassion is weakness. Mercy is for suckers. But a public execution? Now THAT’S a family friendly evening of Christian entertainment.

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These people wrap themselves in crosses, wave Bibles around, scream about protecting Christian values, and then cheer at the prospect of watching a human being riddled with bullets on camera. And somehow, they have the nerve to call themselves the party of family values.

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Excuse me? What the hell happened to Christianity? I must have missed the part in the Bible where Jesus told his followers to grab some popcorn and livestream a man’s execution. Maybe it’s in the Gospel According to MAGA, right between Love Thy Neighbor and Thou Shalt Own the Libs.

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Well, here we fking go again. Another person claiming to speak for God, explaining why watching a man get shot to death by a firing squad is apparently a holy experience. Trump’s spiritual adviser is celebrating the livestreaming of an execution and calling it “commanded by God.”

TRUMP'S SPIRITUAL ADVISER
CELEBRATES LIVESTREAMING OF FIRING-SQUAD EXECUTION, SAYS IT'S 'COMMANDED BY GOD'
Details in first comment

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That’s not strength. That’s a cheap political stunt dressed up in a flag, and it takes one hell of a small mind to mistake the two. Mullin wants the world to see America restoring its values. Be careful what you wish for, Senator. The world might get a good look at yours.

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If your idea of restoring American values is livestreaming an execution,you haven’t restored a damn thing.You’ve just exposed how low you’re willing to sink for applause. Imagine being so starved for a reputation as a tough guy that you have to sell a man’s death as some grand patriotic achievement

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Maybe somebody should explain that to the people running this circus. These politicians love wrapping themselves in the American flag while preaching about morality,patriotism,and traditional values. But the minute they get a chance to turn cruelty into a political stunt,suddenly they’re all for it

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There’s a difference between holding someone accountable for a horrific crime and treating their execution like a damn television special. You can believe someone deserves punishment without getting excited about watching them die. That’s called being human.

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Mullin says livestreaming Hasan execution is part of ‘restoring American values’

Apparently, we’ve reached the point where the government thinks the best way to restore American values is to livestream a man’s execution. Mullin calls this restoring American values. Which values would those be, exactly? Compassion? Human dignity?

thehill.com

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin stood behind the Trump administration’s decision to livestream the military execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, de…

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Less ALL CAPS, more actual results. We’re running a country, not a late night infomercial.

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But Trump would rather throw a digital ticker tape parade for a deal whose promised benefits haven’t yet been demonstrated. Honestly, the man could announce that he’s negotiated with Putin to make gravity optional, and his followers would probably start floating in celebration.

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Where’s the fuel? What are the actual terms of the deal? How much will it cost? When will the deliveries arrive? And how much will prices really fall? Those are questions a serious journalist would ask. They’re also questions a serious president should be prepared to answer.

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They have bills to pay, businesses to run, and families to feed. Trump’s social media announcements won’t pay a single one of those bills. And let’s remember the part Trump always seems to forget: the announcement isn’t the accomplishment.

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Then he tosses in Iran’s nuclear weapons like he’s reading a grocery list. Diesel, Putin, Hormuz, nuclear weapons. What’s next? Cheap eggs and world peace before lunchtime? Meanwhile, farmers and truckers don’t need another all caps promise. They need diesel they can afford.

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That claim about TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz? That’s a hell of a thing to announce about one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes. Does he think international shipping works like a garage door opener? Press a button, declare victory, everything magically starts flowing again?

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But why let facts get in the way of a good Trump announcement? He’s promising Americans cheap diesel courtesy of Vladimir Putin. You know, Putin. The Russian dictator whose country is waging war against Ukraine. Apparently, America First now comes with a Russian supply chain.

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Somebody get this man a Nobel Prize in Economics, a peace prize, and maybe a reality check. Here’s the little problem with Trump’s latest victory lap: promising fuel is not the same as delivering it, and promising lower prices is not the same as making them happen.

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Oh, good. Trump has apparently solved the energy crisis with a phone call to Putin and a keyboard with a broken CAPS LOCK key. Millions of tons of Russian diesel! Record breaking price drops! TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz!

have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter. Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel. Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority.
This is a very big and important announcement.
Additionally, it must be understood, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J.
TRUMP

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Justice should be about accountability, not spectacle. And if we have reached the point where a human execution is something to livestream, we ought to stop and ask ourselves how we got here and whether this is really who we want to be.

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Maybe the question isn’t whether Nidal Hasan deserves to die. Maybe the question is what we become when watching him die is something our government wants to offer us. What have we become when even death isn’t enough anymore, when we need a front row seat to prove that justice has been served?

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The government has a responsibility to uphold the law. It also has a responsibility to consider what its actions say about us as a society. There is a difference between carrying out a sentence and broadcasting a death for people to watch. That difference matters.

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But justice should never require us to become fascinated with the act of killing itself. We can honor the victims without turning their killer’s death into a show. We can hold someone accountable without inviting the public to watch a firing squad do its work.

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I understand that some crimes are so terrible that people believe execution is the only appropriate punishment. And I understand the anger of families who lost loved ones at Fort Hood. They have every right to demand accountability.

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Now our own government is proposing to livestream an execution. What lesson are we teaching? That killing is wrong, except when we do it? That a person’s life can become a spectacle if enough people believe they deserve to die? I understand the argument for the death penalty.

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Have we decided that death needs an audience? That the government should put an execution on a screen and invite people to watch? We live in a country where children are growing up watching violence on their phones, where cruelty gets clicks, and where outrage is treated like entertainment.

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Eventually, America moved away from that practice because there was a recognition that justice shouldn’t be entertainment. We didn’t need to watch someone die to understand the seriousness of their crime. So what has changed?

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What exactly are we supposed to get out of watching a human being die? Justice is one thing. Turning someone’s death into a public spectacle is another. For generations, public executions drew crowds.

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Nobody should minimize the pain and devastation he caused. But now we’re being told that his execution by firing squad, scheduled for December 3, will be livestreamed. The Pentagon says people will be able to watch. And I have to ask: Why?

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There is something deeply disturbing about a government deciding that an execution should be livestreamed for the public to watch. Nidal Malik Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009. What he did was horrific.The victims deserved to live. Their families deserved justice.

PENTAGON:
FORT HOOD SHOOTER'S
EXECUTION WILL BE STREAMED

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