Two terrible anniversaries are good reasons to always remember, never forget
This week, America marks two solemn anniversaries on consecutive days.
September 10 marks one year since Charlie Kirk was assassinated while engaging students in public debate at Utah Valley University. September 11marks 25 years since terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 people on American soil.
Both tragedies confront us with the same fundamental truth: Evil seeks to silence, terrorize and destroy.
The Bible puts it even more personally, identifying evil with a name: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” And a free society cannot survive if we lose the moral clarity to recognize that thief and the courage to resist him.
Those of us old enough to remember September 11, 2001, remember more than where we were when the planes struck. We remember the moral clarity that followed.
We knew innocent people had been murdered. We knew firefighters running into the towers were heroes. We knew passengers aboard Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save strangers.
We knew the terrorists who deliberately targeted civilians were evil.
Americans argued later—and rightly so—about wars, intelligence failures, foreign policy and the proper limits of government power.
But on that morning, no serious person suggested that the victims somehow deserved what happened because of their politics, careers, religion or perceived privilege.
We did not comb through their histories looking for reasons to withhold sympathy. We did not demand ideological agreement before mourning the dead.
They were Americans. They were human beings made in the image of God. They were innocent. That was enough.
Twenty-four years later, Charlie Kirk was murdered while doing something distinctly American and profoundly Christian: standing in a public forum, inviting questions and debating people who disagreed with him.
Charlie did not carry a weapon onto that campus. He carried arguments. He did not demand that his opponents be silenced. He handed them a microphone.
Yet after his assassination, many people did what they largely refused to do after 9/11:
They searched for reasons the victim was unworthy of grief. They recycled controversial quotations, relitigated political disagreements and treated his murder as an occasion to explain why he had invited hatred.
The implication is unmistakable and often posted on social media in blunt terms not even trying to hide the implication: Yes, murder is wrong—but Charlie said things we found offensive.
There can be no “but” after condemning an assassination or an act of terrorism.
Political disagreement does not diminish the sanctity of human life. Offensive speech does not constitute a death sentence.
A person does not forfeit his humanity or right to life because strangers dislike his political opinions.
If our condemnation of murder depends upon whether we approve of the victim, we do not possess a moral principle. We possess a partisan preference.
If our condemnation of the murderer depends on whether we feel sympathy for their backstory, we do not possess a moral principle. We possess toxic empathy.
That is the warning contained in these two anniversaries.
After 9/11, America could identify evil.
Today, we are increasingly tempted to empathize with villains who are “misunderstood” and excuse their evil while carelessly and callously blaming the victims or not thinking of them at all.
We have replaced political opposition with moral dehumanization. People are no longer merely wrong; they are dangerous. They are not neighbors to be persuaded but threats to be eliminated.
Once that premise is accepted, violence becomes easier to excuse. If someone’s speech is itself characterized as violence, then actual violence against him can be repackaged as self-defense.
That is how a culture prepares itself to tolerate political bloodshed.
Charlie understood that the answer to bad ideas was not censorship or coercion, but better ideas. He went onto college campuses because he believed disagreement could be confronted through speech.
He was willing to stand before hostile audiences and answer questions in real time. He trusted young Americans enough to debate them.
The assassin’s bullet was an attack not only on one man, a husband and father, but upon the proposition that our differences can be resolved without violence.
Charlie’s answer to disagreement was dialogue. His murderer’s answer was death.
America’s answer to disagreement is freedom. Western Civilization’s would-be assassins’ answer is death.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,” Paul writes in Ephesians 6, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.”
That truth should restrain us from answering hatred with hatred, even as it compels us to confront evil honestly.
The unity Americans experienced after 9/11 was never perfect, and it did not last. Some of the decisions made in the fear and anger of that moment deserve continued scrutiny.
But beneath that unity was a moral conviction we desperately need to recover: Innocent life is sacred. Courage is honorable. Deliberately murdering people to advance an ideology is evil. And freedom is worth defending. ….
Whistleblower shines light on police chief excusing domestic violence because of Sharia law
A whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Hamtramck, Michigan, claims former police chief Jamiel Altaheri engaged in patterns of domestic abuse, reports Not the Bee.
When confronted by his officers, he is quoted as saying, “You guys here in Michigan don’t handle things the correct way; you guys make everything formal.” Then he suggested such cases should be handled through mosques following the tenets of Sharia law, which does not consider wife-beating a crime.
Randy Sutton is the founder and board chair of The Wounded Blue and author of Rescuing 911. He says that is clearly out of bounds.
“The former police chief utilized his position to inflict his Muslim religion onto the people that serve on the police department,” Sutton states.
Real Clear Investigations finds similar pushes toward Sharia law in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and elsewhere in Michigan.
New York City has a growing number of Muslims in the metro area, a total which now rivals the Jewish population.
Peterson, New Jersey, is the largest city in that state and holds the country’s largest Palestine community and proportion of Muslim residents.
Meanwhile, Dearborn is another Sharia-infested city in Michigan, and Minnesota has been in the news plenty regarding trouble from Somali immigrants, especially fraud.
“There has been a lot of trying to initiate Sharia law into American cities,” Sutton remarks.
Hamtramck, he says, has been heavily infiltrated by Muslims, including the entire city council.
“They’re having five times the call to prayer. They have told other religious leaders to get out of the city,” Sutton states.
The mayor there told a Christian pastor he was not welcome in the city because the pastor opposed naming a street after a known terrorist.
Sutton warns the nation is heading toward the way of Muslim-dominated countries in the EU.
“If we don’t take lessons from what we have seen in Germany and in England and in France, where those no-go zones actually do exist, then we are sliding into that role,” Sutton says.
Soros prosecutor elected to drop gun charges. 1 year later, suspect charged with murder.
A man arrested for a shooting in Northern Virginia in 2025 was charged with second-degree murder a year after multiple felony charges were dropped.
Malachi Rawlings was charged with six felonies, including “aggravated malicious wounding” and “use of a machine gun for an aggressive purpose,” for the Jan. 1, 2025, incident in a Ballston apartment building in which he was found to be in possession of an illegally modified pistol, ARLNOW.com reported.
However, after being given “deferred adjudication” for those charges, he was arrested by police in Washington, D.C., and charged with second-degree murder.
“Pursuant to a DC Superior Court arrest warrant, members of the Capitol Area Regional Fugitive Task Force located and arrested 23-year-old Malachi Rawlings of Southeast, D.C. Rawlings was charged with Second Degree Murder While Armed,” the Metropolitan Police Department said in an Aug. 2 release. A 30-year-old woman was found unconscious and suffering from gunshot wounds on May 12.
The six felonies Rawlings was charged with in state court over the January 2025 shooting could have led to a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, with the maximum sentence being life without parole plus up to 49 years, ARLNow.com reported in March 2025.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s RightSideofLegal.org website warns that having a machine-gun conversion device, like a Glock switch, without registration and authorization from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) can lead to ten years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 in fines.
Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti received nearly $1 million in donations from political action committees funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, according to campaign finance records.
“I have used my lobbying power as a prosecutor to push for gun safety laws,” Dehghani-Tafti told Jejune Magazine in a 2023 interview as she was running for a second term. “In a second term, I will continue to focus on serious crimes, support our legislators in advocating for an assault weapons ban, and work with stakeholders to implement a gun buyback program.”
Dehghani-Tafti also declared her intention to enforce the ban on modern semiautomatic firearms signed into law by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger in May before the legislation was placed on hold by courts pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Viramontes v. Cook County, which challenges a similar bill from a Chicago-area locality.
“Yes, we plan to prosecute cases under the assault weapons ban if they are brought to us by the police,” Dehghani-Tafti told ARLnow.com in July.
Netanyahu Wishes Trump, US ‘Shana Tova’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended good wishes to “President Donald J. Trump, his family, and the American people” hours before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, was set to begin Friday.
“I want to wish President Donald J. Trump, his family, and the American people a Shana Tova — a happy and healthy New Year,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
Netanyahu used the holiday message to highlight cooperation between the United States and Israel over the past year, particularly their efforts against Iran.
“Over the past year, the United States and Israel have achieved historic progress together,” Netanyahu said. “Iran and its evil axis are weaker than ever, while the U.S.-Israel alliance is stronger than ever.”
Netanyahu also praised what he described as Trump’s blockade of Iran and the economic pressure Washington has imposed on Tehran.
“I congratulate President Trump on his blockade of Iran’s evil regime and on the economic pressure brought to bear against the world’s greatest source of instability,” Netanyahu said.
“The people of Israel stand with the people of the United States and with President Trump in confronting the forces of terror,” he added. “In the year ahead, we will continue to make the world safer for all.”
Netanyahu’s message comes as the U.S. and Israel continue to coordinate against Iran following months of conflict in the Middle East.
Trump has maintained pressure on Tehran, while Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance in confronting Iran and its regional proxies.
Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Friday and continues through nightfall Sunday, marking the start of the Jewish year 5787. …
Critics MELT DOWN Over Trump’s $5K Checks, Dems Will Spend MORE
Photos, Videos: 9/11: A Visual History of War
The whole world experienced the attacks of September 11, 2001, in real time. Videos, photos, and audio captured the horror inflicted by Islamic terrorists and the heroism displayed by ordinary Americans forced onto the frontlines of a sudden new war.
To mark the anniversary of 9/11 and to ensure that future generations never forget, Breitbart News offers this visual chronicle of the day that changed the world forever and the decades of war that followed.
From the time of its opening in 1973 to that fatal day in September 2001, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center dominated the skyline of Lower Manhattan’s Financial District, as seen in the following photograph taken just six days before the Towers fell. ..
Victor Davis Hanson: Europe Tried to Suppress the Backlash. It Only Got Stronger
Germany’s right-wing party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), garnered 43.8% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, where the anti-migration party more than doubled its previous vote share while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU lost roughly half its support.
The result is further evidence that Europe’s alt-right fearmongering is only fueling the right’s popularity, not stunting it, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”
Hanson argues that European voters are increasingly rebelling against mass immigration, open-border policies, and political efforts to marginalize populist parties.
He contends that immigration without assimilation risks producing competing ethnic and cultural blocs rather than a cohesive national identity.
WAR & BETRAYAL: INSIDE THE CIA RESPONSE TO 9/11 with Gary Berntsen | Going Rogue w Lara Logan | Ep98
Former CIA operations officer and leader of the Jawbreaker team during the early Afghanistan war.
Gary shares firsthand accounts of post-9/11 operations, the hunt for bin Laden at Tora Bora, and the unprecedented CIA-led military campaign. They discuss missed opportunities, Pakistani duplicity, and the complex Afghan resistance.
The conversation concludes with sharp criticism of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Gary calls America’s greatest military failure, and a call for Americans to honor the sacrifices made in defense of freedom. Check out Gary’s book “Jawbreaker”.
9/11 widow Terry Strada accuses US of protecting Saudi Arabia 25 years after terror attacks, addresses Vance
Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, said Friday during the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero that Saudi Arabia continues to evade responsibility for the terrorist attacks.
Strada went on to accuse the U.S. government of “protecting” Saudi Arabia, saying “administration after administration” had failed the victims’ families over the last quarter-century.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe, and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” said Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United.
“But for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” Strada added.
She also addressed Vice President JD Vance, the most senior Trump administration official to attend the ceremony in Lower Manhattan.
“It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this,” Strada said. “Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors. Stand with Americans.”
Strada’s husband, Tom Strada, was on the 104th floor of the North Tower when it was struck by American Airlines Flight 11, Strada told WPTV in an interview on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Tom Strada, 41, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and days before the attacks, he and his wife had brought their third child home from the hospital.
After the impact of the plane, he called her and said he was heading toward the stairwell. …
Saudi Arabia tells Trump now is the time for military action as Iran-backed Houthis advance
Saudi Arabia is urging Washington to take direct military action against Iran-backed Houthis, Fox News Digital learned after the terrorist group seized key positions along Yemen’s Bab al-Mandab Strait on Friday.
The dramatic strengthening of Houthi’s positioning along the coastline of Yemen is in one of the world’s most important shipping choke points — a narrow passage that links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, which has been used as a bypass as the Iran war continues to severely disrupt shipping, especially of oil, through the Strait of Hormuz.
The rapid advance on Friday triggered urgent discussions at the highest levels in Riyadh and Washington, and a source familiar with the matter tells Fox News Digital that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis.
The Houthis reached the strategic island of Mayyun, also known as Perim, after Yemeni government forces withdrew and also took the mainland coastal town of Dhubab, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters on Friday.
Fox News Digital independently confirmed key elements of an Axios report with a source familiar with the matter, who said the crown prince spoke with Trump a few times over the past 24 hours about the escalating situation in Yemen.
The U.S. does not want to take direct military action for now, but Trump told bin Salman that Washington would assist Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support, according to the source.
The source also confirmed that U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper traveled to Saudi Arabia for coordination talks.
The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the calls or whether additional U.S. military action is under consideration. …
https://www.tumblr.com/foodieinwi26/827417492348600320?source=share
Man Chants ‘Allahu Akbar’ Outside NYC City Hall on 9/11 25th Anniversary
The clip shows the chant during gatherings that included supporters of conservative activist Jake Lang, as the city remembered the nearly 3,000 lives lost. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, joined remembrance events despite a petition from over 100,000 victims’ family members urging him to stay away to keep the day focused on mourning. While ‘Allahu Akbar’ means ‘God is great’ and holds everyday religious meaning for Muslims, many viewers saw its public use on this al-Qaeda-linked anniversary as provocative, sparking online frustration over immigration, cultural integration, and insensitivity.
This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.
President Donald J. Trump Pentagon 9/11 Ceremony
- Privacy Policy
- Balanced News for America: Top Sources
- Balanced News for America: Top Sources, section 2.
- Balanced News for America: Top Sources, section 3.
- Balanced News for America: Top Sources, last section.
- US, World Markets: Financials, Stocks and Business News.
- Top Military and Law Enforcement News Sources
- Leading Sources for Technology Insights and Reviews.
- Top Christian Resources for News and Scriptural Truths.
- About the Site and Author.
- Donate and Help keep In The News Feed up and running.
