Drew in the Morning!
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Drew in the Morning!
Faith, Politics, and Finding Peace in Chaos: What Can We Do When Democracy Itself Is Under Attack?
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FAIR WARNING: This a very political episode. We won't be offended if you don't listen, but don't be offended if you do. ;-)
A morning social media comment suggesting school shootings aren't political but spiritual issues ignites a profound exploration of America's deepening divides. What begins as frustration evolves into a revelatory conversation about how we engage with those fundamentally different from ourselves.
The discussion pivots around a crucial question: When facing those who seem unwilling to compromise or engage in good faith, should we match their intensity or maintain measured diplomacy? One perspective argues for calm dialogue to preserve credibility and demonstrate the empathy we wish to see; the other questions whether this approach is realistic when democracy itself appears under threat.
Through deeply personal reflections on the recent church shooting, the conversation reveals the genuine fear that's become normalized—Catholic parents attending every school mass out of concern it could become a target. This isn't abstract political theory but lived experience that shapes their understanding of America's gun violence epidemic.
The raw, unfiltered exchange touches on Christian nationalism, educational funding cuts, gerrymandering, and the challenge of maintaining hope when political systems seem increasingly rigged. Yet beneath the frustration lies a touching search for meaning and agency in troubling times.
What emerges is a powerful testament to the struggle many Americans face: how to balance passionate advocacy with inner peace, how to find common ground without compromising core values, and ultimately, how to determine what we can change versus what we must accept. For anyone grappling with political exhaustion while refusing to surrender to cynicism, this conversation offers both validation and challenge.
Morning Epiphany About Online Comment
Speaker 1Good morning .
Speaker 2Here's my problem .
Speaker 1What's your problem I ?
Speaker 2had a moment , I had an epiphany this morning Epiphany .
Speaker 1Yeah , I like that word .
Speaker 2And there's two things that happened . At first it was one thing that happened and then I had a second , a secondary epiphany . Okay , first , someone said something to me online this morning and you know you're normally not supposed to let things that people say get to you , but it wasn't that . It got to me . It's that it was someone who clearly doesn't know me and clearly doesn't know the way I think and the way that I am and whatever .
Speaker 2And someone had made a comment online saying that the school shooting thing wasn't political and that we should just get over it and we should just pray for the families . And I was like I was like , dude , it's entirely political . The fact that we have guns in the United States is entirely political . And and nothing was more apparent to me than that , than going to Australia , and every conversation that I had with every single person that was Australian started off with I can't believe . You guys have guns everywhere . Tell me about that . I'm telling you , just like 95% of the conversations first-time conversations with people there were all just in shock about the guns .
Speaker 1I 1,000% believe you because I've had the same conversation .
Speaker 2So then they're like I don't understand . Why wasn't one mass murder enough , right , you know . And so then this thing happens with the church and school and whatever . And then the audacity of someone to say , oh , it's not political , oh , my God , give me a break , it is so political . School shootings aren't about .
Speaker 1I would take more issue , not that they told you it's not political . I would take more issue with what they said afterwards .
Speaker 2But there's a couple okay , so hold , it okay , so so let's jump to that what they said was that I need to get closer to the lord and I'm like you don't know my relationship , you don't know my , you don't know my relationship , you don't know my spirituality , you don't know about my church goings Like none of that . So it's like wow for someone to say you need to get closer to the Lord . I was like wow , okay , and that opened up a thought for me and it was like at first I was like shocked and then offended , and then it was like well , yeah , but I'm I guess I'm not offended , and then it made me start to question why people feel like they can just jump to that , and so that led me to a post that I made on Facebook , and I made this post and I said there is a clear problem with mental illness in the United States and there's a clear problem with lack of education in the United States , and that hopefully , history will look back and go man , we did these people wrong . That's a group of people that need resources more than anybody else . They need education more than anybody else . They need mental health more than anybody else . I really feel like history is going to look back on this and go . Those were the people that were done wrong and that's why they lashed out the way that they did .
Speaker 2And if you look at what history has taught us , it's that when you go after people who don't know any better , or when they feel like they're being , you know , gone , after that they turn around and they lash out and they do crazy stuff . And I really feel like that's where we are and it never occurred to me that , oh my God , they're the ones that need the help and they need it so bad that they're screaming so loud . They're wearing bright red hats , they're waving huge flags and it's like these are the people that need the help . And at first I was like offended , but now I'm like dude , it's so . And then the Christian nationalism thing is like is so much . It's like these .
Speaker 2You have people that are terrified of homosexuals . You have people that are terrified of homosexuals . You have people that are terrified of transgenders . You have people that are terrified of people that don't look like them or act like them or aren't the same color as them , and what they're doing is , instead of educating themselves and realizing that we're all just human beings , they're clutching to this Christian nationalism and they're trying to weaponize Jesus against people that aren't like them , not even realizing that Jesus is .
Speaker 2The lessons that Jesus taught were about loving people that aren't like you , and I just I had this moment this morning where I was like , oh my God , I've been looking at this from the wrong perspective the whole time and it makes me feel so sad , because the people that lack the most empathy and the most understanding of how we as a society can actually move forward and do incredible things are the people that are trying to use that against the group that's trying to advance society . And like I had this whole moment right and I made this post and I thought about it , I was so proud . I was like , yeah , I really like I feel like I captured what I'm trying to say and I read it to you and you're like tone it down . And that's when I had the second epiphany .
Speaker 1The was your second epiphany .
Speaker 2The second epiphany is the reason that Democrats aren't winning in offices and the reason that we
Reframing Understanding of Political Division
Speaker 2are not advancing past what's happening is because we keep being told tone it down . We keep being told no , no , no , no , no , no , just let it go , let it go , let it go .
Speaker 1Wow , this is such an interesting way for you to thought about this .
Speaker 2Yeah , because because you took something that that I was like , I was passionate about . It's like oh , my God , this is something that I'm like , oh , this is , this is nuts , and and you , I don't want to say , invalidated that . But what you did is you said , well , don't be so harsh , Don't be so harsh ?
Speaker 1No , that's not at all what I said .
Speaker 2What I said was you said be more , share your message in a different light so that more people could consume the message .
Speaker 1Correct .
Speaker 2Which , truth be told , has already worked . You were absolutely correct , but you just told Hold on Hold on , hold on , Hold on , hold on , hold on . Let me face the thought here I had someone comment on what I said . I'm sorry . I had someone comment on what I used chat GBT to rewrite based on your feedback who is a complete MAGA supporter saying you're right , you're right , but they weren't looking . They weren't talking about what I was talking about . They were trying to say that I was correct about Democrats and about liberals . They were trying to say that what I said was absolutely correct , but reversed .
Speaker 1Okay , so listen to me . Listen to me . There's so much about what you just said . One you started off the day by reading a comment that upset you , okay it wasn't .
Speaker 2It wasn't that you had your rant , so let me have mine .
Speaker 1You started your day off by reading a comment that would upset you , so if we know anything at all .
Speaker 1Don't get on any social platforms until you're ready to accept the day for what it is right . You can't let things that are outside of our control plant a seed of any kind of hate or doubt at all . When we're waking up in the morning , when we're getting up and we're trying to make changes in the world and we're trying to be better and we're trying to really instill something great , we don't let that negative energy consume us because it goes into a process of chaos . Suddenly , you're interpreting a message and you're feeling attacked and you're not happy about it and you want to show them . You want to show them how wrong you are .
Speaker 2No no , no , this is my interpretation of what's happening . Oh , okay , okay , sorry , sorry , because you did just go on a rant right now .
Speaker 1And so my job , my , my , not even my job . I love you , I adore you . I agree with 95 of the shit that comes out of your mouth . What I don't always agree on is your delivery fair , and so when someone comes at me with the chaotic message that invokes some kind of I don't know the chaotic interpretation , let me talk and like , and I'm gonna and I'm to match this energy with more negative energy . The chaos on top of the chaos doesn't
Disagreement About Approach to Conflict
Speaker 1allow us to learn or to teach one another anything . Suddenly , we're blanketed with a bunch of really loud , harsh words that nobody can learn from , and so I'm not done , and so my problem here is that you can go on your rant , but when I hear your rant , when I hear your your you know reaction , it doesn't for me , it doesn't make me hear you any better . It doesn't show me that you've got the empathy that you feel like these people lack . It doesn't show me that you have the education that you feel that these people lack .
Speaker 2It's rage matching .
Speaker 1It's rage , matching Exactly what that is . And so people will look at this and say you're just as bad . You're just as bad , and then whatever message or credibility that you had to try to say something goes completely out the window and they just say , oh , that's just one loony with another loony Freaking . I don't want to be on the far right and I don't want to be on the far left . I can't hear either one of them . I'm much more of . I want to learn , I want to understand where the other group is coming from . I'm not going to sit here and insult . I'm not going to sit here and try to react in a way that's not going to get me anywhere .
Speaker 1Truly , when we talk about empathy and we talk about trying to understand other people of different beliefs , that's the same thing . The MAGA community is an organization of people with different beliefs than mine . All I can do is be ears open to try to understand where they're coming from so that I can interpret that and replay something or give some feedback that maybe allows them to interpret a little bit of who I am . So I know I say that with a lot of grace and it doesn't come . You know , we feel like I'm generalizing , because it's not everybody the loudest people in that organization are the ones that are throwing out all of the hate and the spew . They spew out all this nonsense and it makes us all react . Why don't we just stop for a second , interpret the words that are coming out , remove the emotion from it and try to understand one another ? And they're not .
Speaker 1Not everyone is bad on either sides . Right , you've got your extreme left that people can't fathom . You've got the people that you , I just I can't understand some people on the extreme left . I just the way I can't understand the right . So , somewhere along the middle , we have to make sense of it all . And when we're living in a community that shares both sentiments , what are we going to do ? We have to coexist . We have to shop at each other's stores , we have to frequent each other's restaurants . This is our community . So what do we do to move past all of this where we can't understand one another ?
Speaker 2So the problem there is ? There's a couple things that I disagree with what you said . Okay , number one , it wasn't a moment of rage when I read that this morning . It was a moment of clarity . It was a moment of understanding that , wow , this is someone who just really doesn't know me at all . And then the second was wow , this is someone who thinks that their version of religion is better than my version of religion . And how disillusioned is someone to think that anybody's religion is better than my version of religion ? And how disillusioned is someone to think that anybody's religion is better than anybody else's religion . So it was a moment of clarity for me where I was like whoa , I finally see in my mind what the larger problem is . Everything that you just said is awesome in a perfect world .
Speaker 2The problem is is that if you have side A versus side B , you're assuming by what you said that side B is sane enough to want to meet you halfway . And the only way that what you're saying works is if you have two people that are willing to meet each other halfway , that are willing to go the distance and put in the work on both sides to see the other person's perspective and what we've seen historically over time is that one side is willing to see the other side , but that other side is absolutely unwilling to see the perspective of the others , and so a conversation doesn't work unless both sides can get together and have that conversation . That's what a conversation is . It's a back and forth . But what you have is you have a group of people that are literally beating people to death with the American flag , physically beating them to death with the American flag at the Capitol . You have people that are putting their brand and their logo and their thoughts and their hatred in your face , putting it in your face , and you're saying , hey , let's just be cool . And they're going no , you don't look like me , you don't talk like me , you don't sound like me , you don't talk like me , you don't sound like me , you don't believe in the same things that I do . I don't want anything to do with you . So you have one side of it that's like , hey , let's be compassionate toward each other . And you have another side that's like , fuck you , I hope you die . And it's like , dude , you can't . What you said is awesome in an ideal world , but that's not what we have today . So if we don't have that and it's someone who's walking up .
Speaker 2To imagine , there's two people walking towards each other and the one on the left is coming out with open arms saying , hey , how can I work with you to make this a better place ? And the one on the right is coming out with a knife going . I'm going to stab this person and that'll make my country a better place . You have those two people that are supposed to meet halfway and it's not going to end well . What I'm saying is that , for so long , the group on the left-hand side that's walking towards the person on the right-hand side is coming out with open arms . Maybe it's time for the people to fight like we've never fought before , because you're not going to win by getting stabbed , you're not going to win by being compassionate . You're not going to win by saying let me understand your perspective .
Speaker 1But how do you win ? By becoming the person that you hate .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's true that's a tough one . How do you combat someone that's coming at you aggressively ? That's the big question .
Speaker 1I don't Okay . So here's the thing I know that in my space , where I'm at , what I can do is only really to instill goodness in my children . Fair .
Speaker 2That's what .
Speaker 1I'm not a government leader . I'm not dying on any kind of freaking flag today . It's not going to happen . That's not who I am , so I didn't step up in that capacity .
Speaker 2But part of the problem is it's an article that I just read where we talk about school vouchers and we talk about school funding and we talk about government funding and we talk about school vouchers and we talk about school funding and we talk about government funding and we talk about all these things . Let's say that we're the best parents that we could possibly be and we want to send our kid to a higher education institution so that they can learn about the world , so that they can learn to be better people , so that they can learn to understand and be compassionate and work towards a goal of making everything great again . And be compassionate and work towards a goal of making everything great again . Right , let's say that that's what we do . When you have a team that has cut the funding for public education , for people to be able to learn and to understand and to know and to have level footing , when you have a group that's trying to do everything that they can to keep the marginalized as low as they possibly can , then what can we do ? How do our children stand a fighting chance when you have a bureaucracy that has gutted the ability for people in the public education system to learn and understand what bad is .
Speaker 2This is a president who's literally came out and said that we need to remove so many negative connotations about slavery from the Smithsonian Museum because it just it wasn't happy enough . So let's play that forward for five years from now , when we go to Washington DC with the kids and we take them to Smithsonian and they go oh yeah , slavery wasn't that bad . It wasn't that bad , it's not a big deal . Then you get generations of people that are brought up in a country to think man , why should I care about people that don't look like me ? It wasn't that bad . They're making it up . It wasn't that bad for them . How does that lead our children to empathetic lives if what they're being taught in school is
The Challenge of Coexistence
Speaker 2dictated by a white nationalist , if what they're learning in museums is being dictated by a white nationalist , if what they're learning in church is being dictated by a white Christian nationalist ? Dude , we can only be as good , we can be incredible parents , but the second that we put them out in society , what is society going to teach them ?
Speaker 1I mean , these are all valid points Way more than I imagine that I've ever had to really think about , but these aren't real . I'm not making this shit up . These are things that are happening right now .
Speaker 2The only thing that I can tell you is that UTRGV is about to lose millions and millions of dollars in funding . Why ? Because they're a Hispanically driven university , and let's say that our daughter decides . You know what I want to take the first year ? I want to go to UTRGV . Okay , great , go to UTRGV . She's going to go to a school that's completely underfunded , that's only teaching the ideals that Trump wants her to teach , because if they speak up , if they speak up , they lose all their funding . So they can't say anything against the president . So they go home and watch the news . Well , the news can't say anything because it's been censored . Okay , well , I'll go to DC and I'll get to the root of it . I'll go to the Smithsonian .
Speaker 1I recognize that the administration is an issue . I recognize that it's created an entire culture of people who think that it's okay that all of these things are fine . I recognize all those things , but me myself . I don't condone speaking to one another in that way , so I remove myself and that's not the answer either . Absolutely I agree with what you're saying . I 1,000% agree with what you're saying . But for me it's never been about let me get louder , Let me get bolder , Let me get crazier , Let me because I'm not going to .
Speaker 1I'm not going to fix anything by doing what they do .
Speaker 2Biden . But but there's . There's a school of thought that says if we don't fight , we lose .
Speaker 1I refuse to fight that way . I'm not that person . I'm not going to insult people . I'm not going to . I'm just not that person .
Speaker 2Insulting isn't fighting . What I'm saying is that what does it take ? What are people doing to stop this ? What are our politicians doing ? What are our voters doing ? I think that everyone has been met with .
Speaker 1it doesn't matter what we do . This is the bigger problem . The bigger problem isn't that I have a difference of opinion from your opinion and let's all go vote on it , and let's all show up and vote . It's now to the point , now , where anybody who does not agree with all of this doesn't necessarily have a voice , because it doesn't matter how many people show up , they're going to cookie cut their way through all of it .
Speaker 2They're going to gerrymander the state and they're going to make sure that , whatever , do you want to get rid of mail-in voting now ? And if ?
Speaker 1it doesn't happen , you have the president saying that we're going to make it happen . So at this point I'm kind of just waiting for the shit show to fall out and for us to figure out what's going to happen after that .
Speaker 2Okay , but that's my point . Is that what is anybody doing to stop this ? What can I do ? Well , that's the other question . It's not what is people doing ? Or what are people doing , it's . What can we possibly do , as two citizens in this country that are sitting in a truck in front of a gorgeria ? What can we possibly do to change the outcome ? That almost seems inevitable at this point . What can we do ?
Speaker 2We can vote for candidates that we won't put in there . But that vote in a gerrymandered district . Fucking thanks to Republicans into a gerrymandered district . You know what I it ? Fucking thanks to Republicans into a gerrymandered district . You know what I hope ? I hope all five of those swing Democratic . I hope that people you know . I hope that people actually realize that their vote can make a difference and that they can get out there and do something . All they have to do is just vote .
Speaker 1That's it . They don't have to walk out . This is where I am and this is where I try to meet you this morning , and what I was trying to tell you was just I got you all fired up For me . And I'm not really necessarily fired up . I'm just so tired . I'm so tired of having this conversation over and over and over again . I'm so tired of people saying ridiculous things online from both sides . I'm tired of hearing it . I don't want to read about it . I don't want to hear that so-and-so is not friends with anybody or this person anymore because of this .
Speaker 1I'm so tired of it . I don't want to have these conversations anymore . One , I'm not part of the 1% right . Two , I am Hispanic . This does affect me . We live in a community that is being very much affected , and if my people around me can't see the impact of their words and of their votes ,
When Democracy Is At Stake
Speaker 1then there's nothing else that I feel like I can do about that . I'm not going to educate them enough by yelling at them online I'm not going to educate them enough for them to change their views .
Speaker 1All I can just do now is limit my friendships right . I am who I hang with and nurture that , nurture my children and have a mutual respect for people around me . That's the best that I can hope for at the current moment .
Speaker 2But that doesn't change what the You're living in a bubble , doing that because the state and the nation that we live in is going to continue to deteriorate . The abilities for our children to get an education , to live a meaningful life , to have access to health care , like for us to be able to someday maybe retire and have social security All of these for us to be able to someday maybe retire and have Social Security all of these things are going to continue to get worse and usually it's like , okay , you know what , I'm going to wait until the storm passes . It's like we deal with hurricanes down here all the time . You always wait for the eye . There's no eyes in the storm . In this storm , we are less than a quarter of a way into it and it is already as horrendous as we've got national guard troops going into different places . And the places that they're going into , where is he putting national guard ? He's putting national guard in places , in cities that disagree with him yeah in states that disagree with him .
Speaker 1We all see it .
Speaker 2How is this okay ? How did we get here ? And again , what can we possibly do to stop this ? The people around ?
Speaker 1us voted for him . They did so . This is a shock . I mean , I don't know why anybody's surprised anymore . We live amongst I don't even know what the word is we live amongst the people who voted him . This is , this is what it is . Everyone around us wanted this , and so you start to see like the light bulbs go off . Well , this isn't what I voted for and this isn't entirely what I wanted . Well , now we're stuck with it . So I don't have an answer . I don't know how to make it better . I don't even think our government leaders know how to make it better . You look at't even think our government leaders know how to make it better . You look at past presidents . You look at people who have been elected . You look at all of this . No one , no one , knows how to make this better , because everyone is being silenced .
Speaker 2Yeah , they're being shut down .
Speaker 1What is the alternative ? What do you do then ? What happens when the Democrats really believe in having a democracy and the Republicans absolutely don't ? And this is where we are , and they're using he's already saying , he's already using dictator's feet , and so it's . I don't know where it goes . I don't know how you prevent it . I myself have never lived through this , neither has anyone else Right so .
Speaker 2But that's not true .
Speaker 1Us here in the .
Speaker 2US have not lived through this Right . We and not live through this right , we've not had to deal with this right Putin . I just said in the US Hitler , you know I don't want to make it better but I do know that getting online and posting a bunch of stuff , just makes people go ugh again .
Speaker 2You're misconstruing that , because it wasn't like I wasn't . I understand that the tone of the first message I wrote was like you can see that as Aaron , but at the same time it's like I felt like it was . I had a moment where it was like a wake-up call , where it was , oh my God , these are people that you want a real wake-up call .
Speaker 1Run for office , you want to do something that's going to really make a difference . Run for office , you want to make a difference . Run for office , you want to make a difference . Run for office , get people to come out and vote . Make the masses understand what you're saying . But you have to do it in a way where people on both sides can interpret your words and really get behind what the message is . Okay .
Speaker 2So let's say that I was going to entertain them .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 2Let's say that I was going to entertain running for a seat in the like a state rep seat . Okay , right , that battle to get into it . I can't afford that . I can't actually afford that . Well , you get people who back you , okay . So you get people who back you . Okay , so you get people who back you . The money that flows in to this area buys the votes of the other side . It's very difficult to win a seat if you're not playing for that team right now .
Speaker 1Okay , and we'll see . So we're going to see there's some fun elections coming up . Okay , and we'll see . I mean so we're going to see there's some fun elections coming up , so we'll see how well that works out . What does that tell you , then ? I mean , is that our wake-up call to realize that the majority doesn't think like us ?
Speaker 2Okay , so yes , but also this goes back to something that you said we have to shop at each other's stores . We have to eat at each other's stores . We have to eat at each other's restaurants . No , we don't . No , we don't . We do not have to eat at a fucking MAGA restaurant ever again . We don't have to . And if we take our $6 meal or $12 meal or $20 meal away from them , or , on a Sunday , if we take our $100 meal away from them and that's $100 less that they can spend buying out the vote of someone in the Republican Party then maybe we need to think better about where we're spending our money . That's something that we can control . We can give our money to only the people that we know that support us .
Speaker 1So now I've got to sit in it because I made a mistake .
Speaker 2Yeah , yes , that's the American election process right . We've got midterm elections coming up next year . Hopefully we flip a lot of stuff that happened . That's the part that's truly terrifying . That podcast we were listening to yesterday , james Carville talking about how we need to be diligent and watch what's going to happen , because this is a president who's willing to do anything and everyone is aware that those midterms might flip a whole bunch of seats and he is not going to like that . So be cognizant of the crazy shit that this party is going to do between now and November of next year , because they're going to do everything that they can to lie , steal and cheat their way to winning all the seats that they can . And we're already seeing in Texas we were the first the gerrymandered districts . Five , five extra votes flipped to Republicans .
Speaker 1I just know that I can't . I like I don't want to entertain these conversations anymore . And I don't want you to read something and get upset because someone doesn't truly know you . You've got how many friends and followers on your Facebook . Do they know ? You can't expect them to know who you are truly . You're right . You can't expect to know them Absolutely Right . So the circle gets smaller .
Speaker 2But again for someone to pass judgment . I guess my problem , the part that was really shocking to me , was that someone A passed judgment .
Speaker 1And it was so off the mark and it was like a religious thing .
Speaker 2Yeah , like get closer to the Lord , get the fuck out of here Like dude . Oh my God , if
Personal Safety and Community Fear
Speaker 2you only knew Like hold on .
Speaker 1You know it's like Some people don't know your background . No , they have no idea , and we also can't assume that everyone will , it's true .
Speaker 2But part of watching all this play out is that cultist extreme Christian nationalism , oh my God . Christian nationalism , oh my God . It's like the . I don't understand . I don't understand how the people that are weaponizing church and religion and Jesus , how they're sitting there , how they I don't understand how they can come to terms with that , like how they can sit there and go .
Speaker 1Let's take a minute really quickly and acknowledge what happened , acknowledge that there was a shooting , not just at a school , but at a church , a Catholic church . What are we ? What are we practicing ? We are practicing Catholics . Did we have this fear when our children were ?
Speaker 2A hundred percent . I have the fear on Sundays when we go to mass .
Speaker 1It was every single Friday that there was mass . I made sure that I was there in the event . I don't know in the back of my head , subconsciously , because if something did happen and I wasn't there , I'd never be OK with it . I , this was something that that that was deeply personal for us .
Speaker 2I was worried that someone was going to drive through the kids as they were walking across the street . I was worried that a shooter was going to show up in the house .
Speaker 1It was deeply personal and emotional , I think , for both of us . Dude , it broke me , I lost Because it's something that we feared , not that I know the kids .
Speaker 2Not that I know the victims , not that I know anything , but when I read that the shooter shot through stained glass windows and hit kids that were on their knees praying , I lost it . Like I , I , I ugly cried because that was always my biggest fear . In the most vulnerable place , in the most vulnerable position . Someone chooses to take advantage of that and hits a church . That is always my fear .
Speaker 1It's always my fear . So now it's happened , right , and we've got a couple days to even process it . I don't even think you and I have really spoken about it out loud . And so there's so much of what we're mad , we are mad , I'm mad , I'm mad , I'm upset .
Speaker 2It is politically charged , you know um , well , that's the thing , so is a problem . So , but back that up , right ? Uh , you know , and the every weapon that was purchased was purchased without any problem whatsoever , right , this ? The person that was a shooter legally purchased all of them . They were in their legal rights as an american citizen to purchase all the weapons that they had . Period , there were no red flags , there was no history of mental illness , there was no history , and don't give me the shit that it was , oh , it was a transgender person .
Speaker 1I was going to say you know , that's exactly what's going to happen .
Speaker 2Fucking stupid people saying that transgender people make them mentally ill . Go fuck yourself , Come on man .
Speaker 1Well , that's what's next , dude , it's so stupid , you better believe before we can remove guns before we have any control of these weapons . There's going to be a box .
Speaker 2Oh God , there's going to be a box on that . Do you identify as transgender ? What do you ?
Speaker 1identify , as That'll be the next thing .
Speaker 2And that'll be the change , because that's going to make all the difference is asking now if you want your , what you identify as so this person was completely within their legal rights as an American citizen to go and purchase a gun , absolutely , and they bought it , and they bought all the weapon , all the ammunition and everything else . Then you look at it and this is what all the GOP Republican stuff is trying to spin . They're all trying to spin it like oh , it was a mental health issue , oh , they were taking drugs , ssris that have caused , that are known to cause issues that cause violence . No , my chingas , they're like shut the fuck up , dude .
Speaker 1Well , poll the audience . Everybody is on some kind of Everybody's on something .
Speaker 2man
The Political Nature of Gun Violence
Speaker 2no-transcript had a problem with where the United States was going and said in the manifesto that the reason that I'm doing this is to draw attention to the bigger problem . And why is he going after kids at a church ? Because that will give him the most press possible to show off what the bigger problem is in society which is horrible and doesn't make it right or doesn't justify it .
Speaker 1It's all freaking tragically bad . It's horrible . But for someone to say that it wasn or doesn't justify it , it's all freaking tragically bad . It's horrible . But for someone to say that it wasn't politically charged it was ridiculous .
Speaker 2This was the most politically charged one out of all of them , it feels like .
Speaker 1To blanket and just say well , you need to get closer to God . The whole thing was just it was .
Speaker 2Asinine .
Speaker 1Yeah , there are no words for it .
Speaker 2And all I could do is just go wow , unfriend block , like that's it and unfortunately it's come to that right Like it's .
Speaker 1the lesson here is you are who you hang with and so if that's what's around you , you have every right to remove that . You know , I don't . I stay away from these conversations . I stay far , far away from them .
Speaker 2Your perspective is so clean . You look at this and you said there's got to be a way for all of us to work together . And I get that . I absolutely understand that and I understand that in a perfect world that that would make sense . I'm glad that you see the best in everybody , because I'm starting to lose faith that everybody has a best in them .
Speaker 1It's not for me to judge and it's not for me to decide .
Speaker 2So when you ?
Speaker 1talk about getting closer to God . Let me give you a moment . It's not for me to judge and it's not for me to decide . I leave things that are out of my control in the hands of God and there's nothing I can do about that . I leave things that are out of my control in the hands of God and there's nothing I can do about that . I can only control what I can do . All I can do is decide on how I'm going to react to something , decide on what my actions are going to be and take accountability for that and move forward with that , and sometimes it's right and sometimes it's wrong .
Speaker 2Wow , so maybe the lesson here is maybe I do need to get closer to that and realize that the people that make those comments I'm not the one that should be judging them
Finding Faith Amid National Division
Speaker 2Way to bring that thing full circle . Speaking of full circles , we've been sitting outside of a concheria for 45 minutes and it's really getting it's time to take a space .
Speaker 1I need to go inside .
