Disney Cancels Kimmel - I Cancelled Disney

 By Mildred Robertson

As I watch America spiraling into an autocratic dictatorship, I am appalled at how easy it has been for various entities to cave to government overreach. This administration has attacked regulatory bodies, infringed upon civil liberties, and used government power to impose regulations that burden individuals and businesses who do not bow down to the whims of America's authoritarian leadership.  

Trump's administration has an amoeba-like predisposition to absorb the power and authority regulating state and federal governmental agencies, large businesses, and corporations. He has cowed the United States Congress into relinquishing its oversight responsibilities and has launched an attack on fundamental constitutional rights. 

In the most recent affront to American democracy, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show due to his comments regarding Charlie Kirk's shooting. The late-night show host remarked, "This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish," referring to Trump's reaction to Kirk's murder on September 10 while addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University.  

While Kirk's shooting is horrific, so is the governmental response to his execution. This administration is using this tragedy, an American tragedy that affects all of us, as a rallying cry to continue Trump's vindictive attack on all who would have the courage to oppose him. 

Charlie Kirk was a purveyor of hatred who, unfortunately, died while in the throes of promoting it. I have empathy for those who loved him because all deaths are sad, and all murders are unconscionable. But to lionize this man, while ignoring the violent attacks and murders of other politicians of differing ideologies, is just a ploy to justify the governmental overreach in which this administration is already engaging. 

As I watch this administration roll away my rights and freedoms under the Constitution, I often wonder what I can do to make a difference. I write this blog. I donate to causes that support my beliefs and American ideals. And now, I cancelled my subscription to Disney, which is the parent company of ABC, which cancelled the Kimmel show based on his comments.  If we cannot have the free flow of thought in our country, WE cannot be free. 

It's not much. But it is the best I can do to say enough!

You can do it too. These businesses are following the money. Let them know that your dollars will go elsewhere if they continue to acquiesce to this authoritarian regime. 

Death in America – Lethal Politics

By Mildred Robertson

As average Americans deal with the growing violence that blights our political landscape, many search for leadership that inspires unity over conflict. It is a travesty that Charlie Kirk was gunned down in the middle of a university campus, although he was there to espouse violent, hateful ideas. He had a right to his beliefs and the right to champion them. However, it is no less a travesty that he contributed to the hate and violence Americans have come to accept as normal. Kirk defended our weak response to gun control following a school massacre by saying, "Yes, people die from gun violence. It's tragic. But that's the price of freedom. Unfortunately, it's worth it to keep the Second Amendment intact."

It appears political violence is on the rise in America.  From the 2011 Tucson shooting, where then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot during a constituent meeting and six people were killed and 13 wounded, to the assassination of right-wing conservative Charlie Kirk, terrorists have used violence to silence ideas different from their own. While right-wing leadership calls for vengeance following the fatal shooting of radical activist Charlie Kirk, they remained silent during violent attacks on political figures with differing ideas.

While we perceive ourselves as an enlightened nation that values political freedom, our history presents a different perspective.  We are a violent country. Our turbulent history dates back to the colonies and the destruction of the indigenous population. We have romanticized the violence upon which our nation was built. We see ourselves as rugged, gun-toting individualists whose primary goal is to live free of others' opinions, wants, or needs.

 You can trace America’s appetite for violence from slavery, through the civil Rights movement, up to more recent history that includes the assassination of Medgar Evers, the slaying of Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and John and Robert Kennedy.

But we cannot stop there.  Our country has endured white terrorist attacks such as Timothy McVey’s bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma, the 13 domestic terrorists who attempted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmore, and the home invasion on Nancy Pelosi and the physical assault on her husband.

Violence in our country is neither red nor blue, as we cite the attempted assassination of Ronald Regan, a mass shooting in 2017 that left five people injured, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, and the attempted slaying of President Donald Trump.

In June 2025, state Sen. John Hoffman survived an assassination attempt when he and his wife were shot in their Minnesota home. The attack on the Hoffmans occurred before the political assassination of state Rep. Melissa Hortman, the former House speaker, and her husband, Mark. The assassin went as far as to kill their dog. The four were on a kill list of dozens of democrats targeted for assassination.

While Trump basically ignored these recent shootings against democrats, he has ordered flags to be raised to half-staff in honor of the fallen Kirk. His administration did not formally acknowledge Hortman’s assassination or attend or send a representative to her funeral. It appears that he considers himself president of only those who support him. Whereas major statesmen who preceded him have used times such as these to bring unity, he seems to care little about uniting the nation in this time of turmoil.

As America grapples with 9,400 threats of violence against politicians in this country in 2024, we must determine whether our rugged individualism tied to the 2^nd Amendment and the right to bear arms is more important than the right to live without fear of the gun violence that has overcome us in our schools, our streets, our churches and synagogues, and even within the halls of Congress.

As we struggle with the violence that has overtaken our country, Americans have a decision to make.  Do we want to unite as one nation under God? Are we willing to live in a true democracy where all voices are heard, and ideas are put to the test at a ballot box rather than the butt of a gun? Will we relinquish our love of the violent gun culture, or will we continue to normalize the lethal politics that currently govern our lives?

Rampant gun violence. Political terrorism. Is it REALLY worth it?

I would ask Charlie Kirk how he feels about it now. But I can’t, because he is a victim of his own rhetoric and America’s lethal politics.