For many years, I’ve tried to meet faithfully on Thursday mornings with my good friend Bob. We meet for coffee at downtown Anchorage market near where he lives.
Bob is in his 80’s and has wisdom beyond his years.
This morning, as we verbally danced around many topics, our conversation, at one point, landed on the remarkable outpouring of love and respect that has manifested after the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk.
We spoke about the recent memorial at UAA a few weeks ago where, as a surprise to both of us, there were no protestors. Not one.
Dialogue with the likes of people like Bob and I … was useless according to her. We should not be allowed any platform. We should be eliminated.
Encouraging, we agreed, but obviously not indicative of what has transpired on-line and in person in many other settings.
As if on cue, a woman who had been seated behind us, got up to leave and approached our table.
“Just so you know,” she proclaimed, “I’ve been listening to your conversation, and I can say that I absolutely celebrated when I heard Kirk had been killed.”
For the next few minutes, we tried to engage with her about our disagreements and how it’s actually good to dialogue with people who oppose your views. As Charlie Kirk often noted, when that stops in a family, in a community or in a culture, violence becomes real.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
She was having none of it. Dialogue with the likes of people like Bob and I, despite the fact that she was actually the one who came to our table, was useless according to her. We should not be allowed any platform. We should be eliminated.
Bob asked for clarification that she had really said she was happy when Kirk was murdered.
“Absolutely” was her response.
As she walked away, her final words to us were, “Expect resistance.”
Unsettling? Certainly. But also clarifying.
We have work to do. Though we battle not against flesh and blood, but principalities of darkness right here in an Anchorage coffee shop, we love our enemies, and we keep lifting up Truth.
There is no other way.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
31 Comments
I was online watching YouTube to listen to Charlie Kirk and planned to watch it from a previous YouTube. My purpose in making it a habit was to enjoy his clarity, wisdom and humility in answers with those individuals who asked for questions to be answered in anger and malicious purpose. Charlie Kirk was a voice of purpose and totally unafraid to engage, but when he did, it was without menace. He left many he talked with in good spirit answers and gave them a sense of respect and then moved on. I watched the beginning of his set up routine and many students were already in attendance waiting for him to open and begin as he sat down on the stool. Then, the shot hit him and sent his body in an arc to the friend on the left side who took him away from the scene. I started to cry. I do that when my countryman will lose their lives. I cried when I saw the twin towers come down and I really cried when I saw the news of the attacks on homes and families in Israel. Charlie Kirk was a fine young person and our country needs more young men who, have Charlie Kirk’s values. But the most wonderful thought I had watching his memorial was Psalm 24. I had to read it all and put Charlie Kirk’s name in it as I read. Charlie Kirk was here among us as a human reminder of God’s intention and purpose with Charlie Kirk tucked into Psalm 24:3-6. As a great grandmother, I recognize the depth of Charlie Kirk’s heart and that same value is prominent in my grandsons and my three great grandsons. Charlie Kirk has left his heart and mark on this world. I’m glad I took the time to listen to him.
Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron—” Need I say more? When free dialogue stops, we grow stagnet and dull.
Jim, good for you. Love your enemies. There’s so much hate in this world we live in.
“We will resist evil without pride and without hatred.” André Trocmé Protestant French pastor.
Hi Jim,
I am the woman who approached you yesterday. I have our entire conversation if you’d like to watch, listen and print a revision. Let me know if you’d like to do a proper interview, or if you prefer to twist reality to suit your narrative. Have a blessed day.
Sweetheart, while there may or may not have been more to your conversation, did you or did you not say that you were pleased that Charlie Kirk was killed? That is the root of this article. Until you clarify that, I doubt any of the supposed taped conversation matters much.
Karen?
I will bite Stephanie… You just so happened to be recording AND filming the private conversation of two gentlemen at a coffee shop because they were discussing the atrocious and evil slaughter of Christian leader Charlie Kirk??? How utterly convenient!
What I happen to know and have experienced with people who claim to be liberals, Satanists, atheists and non-believers is that they almost always (and conveniently) “have a recording” of whatever it is that is being argued. Usually this recording proves that they are nothing more than amateur filmmakers and legitimate whiners. Instead of seeing your rendition of Blair Witch Project 2025, I’d love to hear instead from people who work with you or live with you or know you in some capacity. Like, are you a good person? Are you honest? Do you pay your taxes? Do you abide by the law? Are you an honorable woman? A superlative mother? An excellent friend? A doting daughter? A quality member of our society? I care more about knowing the answers to those questions than questioning Mr. Minnery.
You taped these guys? In a public place? Because you like to butt into others business? How special you must be.
Let me guess, you’re one of the smart kids and we HAVE to listen to you, because we are not.
PS: yoga is a pagan activity. Enjoy.
Stephanie – send an email to jim@akfamily.org and we’ll set up an interview. No need to twist anything. Dialogue is good. Violence…not so much.
Same Stephanie Shaffer in Anchorage who has a gofundme for cancer? If yes Her life challenges explains the anger.
Look forward to interviewing you on my Podcast Stephanie if you’re interested. My email is jim@akfamily.org
Well, she was right about one thing: we can “expect resistance”. But scripture tells us to not go along with the evil deeds of darkness but instead, expose them. In this case, evil exposed itself. What a very unhappy, bitter life most leftists lead!
Trump Derangement Syndrome has turn into an addiction. Same as booze, drugs, sex, or food. As with all harmful addictions, the more hard core addiction you have the further you distance yourself from normal. To be so caught up into yourself to approach strangers to argue with them demonstrates an addiction to TDS that supersedes common decency.
The threat of harm cannot be over looked or dismissed. These people are evil and hateful justifying there means to their perceived outcome. You Do not have to look any further than the current government shut down. Democrats lost the November election, so now they are hurting America by a lame shut down to fund the issues the Democrats lost on.
I’m so sorry you experienced that, good for you and Bob for remaining civil and trying to dialogue with her. I was still crying over Charlie’s death I don’t know if I could have. You are right, it’s not about left and right anymore, it’s good and evil it’s light and dark. Things are different these days and it’s heart breaking as my grandchildren are just being born and I pray they are not coming into a dangerous world that will hate them if they love Jesus or shoot them if they love and stand for truth. But we know it might, and yet we also must stand.
Unfortunately, many of these people cannot be reached, and they will not respond to the love and kindness you show. It’s a bitter reality I’ve learned in years, but we keep sharing the gospel and our faith. We are in a spiritual battle and both our heads in our spirits need to be kept on a swivel.
She is a force of one. She doesn’t represent me and I am very liberal. None in my circle either. Avoid please the inclination to lump all on the left with the likes of her.
Manny- you are in for a penny, in for pound.
And yet, there you are, lumping all conservatives together without ever understanding a single one of us. Good luck with that, Manny,
Tamra. I’ve read the bible. I understand you.
These are the type of people a friend fled Ukraine, following the Germans during their retreat; to get away from. If given a chance, these types of people have no issues with pulling the trigger if they think it will help in building their socialist utopia. We want to be left alone. The left will have none of it. They will be in our face until we meet their demands. When push comes to shove, the left will be in for a wide awakening that they have made a grave mistake that will cost them dearly.
Give me three attributes of the left please that justifies your hatred. If possible, make them more vile than the hundreds of atrocities done by MAGA.
The friend’s dead uncle, beaten to death by communist party members. Same friend lost 75% of his extended family during the “starving years” in Ukraine. A friend who was smuggled out of communist Czechoslovakia using a dead woman’s passport. The “guests” of the Hanoi Hilton. I’ll tell the “guests” you said hi, when I see them next month. /s
Please list the atrocities, Manny. We will wait.
To Manny:
1. open borders
2. defunding police
3. socialist economic policies
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These don’t justify hatred toward America’s Left.
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Could hatred be an issue of perception, aggravated perhaps by constantly hyperventilating news media and opportunistic politicians?
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Must one hate a child to discipline him? Doesn’t it have to be explained to the child, more than once as it happens, that he’s loved, the problem’s not him, but what he did?
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How’s a young adult affected if he never learned such a thing? Graduated from piddling on the carpet and being yelled at to piddling on America’s borders, language, and culture …and being yelled at, maybe he perceives noisy objection as hatred?
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Could the perception of hatred among some of the Left be a reasonably defensive response to assertive reaction of some on the Right as the latter perceive current events threatening traditional borders, language, and culture?
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Forget for a moment what separates Left from Right, something unites the two, what could it be?
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No right or wrong answers, just curious what you think.
You know….when the Christian conservative alt right stomps their feet and proclaims the evil of the world stems from others “shoving” their lifestyle and beliefs down their throats….and then they themselves do it onto others…what did you expect…. The key to life is compromise and the alt right has lost that ability and plays the victim when their very playbook is used against them. Charles was a racist homophobic charlatan that is being used as a battle cry of the conservative movement. It is the heart of their politics.
Nothing like shooting down your own argument.
Before you can “uplift the truth”, you must know the truth. Minnery does not.
So, if you do a fairly quick search of the woman who claims she is the person mentioned in the article, you will find a person who live in an echo chamber of leftism. From my perspective, she cannot understand normal thinking and lives a sad existence of a life.
Yep. Sad and angry.
telling how the left leaning use hate, lies and murder to deal with those that disagree with them. what everyone needs to accept is were all being played. Powers e everywhere want civil war. The left are ignorant enough to fall into it first. eventually the right may join in. The battle would seem unbalanced there though. Those who argue for the 2nd ammendment exercise it. seems foolish to poke that bear. This lady has been duped. Doubt she was raised here.