Patrick is a commercial & corporate filmmaker in Oklahoma City. He likes to direct things. Mostly funny things. Sometimes those things are funny on purpose.
I will no longer live in fear of what others think of me or what they will label me or try to end my career.
In fact, like Charlie, I will always leave the door open for peaceful dialog to any and all who want to debate in good faith.
Charlie Kirk knew the answer to those questions. And now, sadly, so do many more of us.
I will likely never approach anywhere near his level of influence or impact, but I don't care about that.
What I care about is doing what I can with what I have regardless of the result.
But I think I've finally come to terms with the full depth of the threat to myself, to others like me, to the country, to the future.
I can no longer leave it to others to take the risk of speaking out about what we believe and know to be true.
To put it bluntly, from this point forward, calling someone a Nazi is a death threat.
The truth is, it always has been. We just never could fully grasp the realness of the threat.
Where am I going with all this?
I've mostly kept quiet online about my beliefs in the Trump years. I just wanted to live my life and focus my energies my career.
After all, I'm in a profession where conservative views are frowned upon...
Just having to defend against such a smear can be enough to ruin your reputation.
Now we know for certain: it can also cost you your life.
And a disturbing number of our so-called 'fellow citizens' will celebrate when it does.
I thought I had done a good job of keeping a lid on my outrage over the events of the last 24 hours, but then I just saw Charlie Kirk's casket being removed from Air Force Two and I realized that it wasn't going away; it is never going away...
The Left smears conservatives with the term Nazi knowing full well what they are doing.
The Nazis were among the most heinous villains in history. To be compared to them is not only distressing but also dangerous.
The point I'm trying to make here is, the calls for toning down the rhetoric and coming together are a scam. The Left has been vilifying and dehumanizing those of us on the Right FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE.
You remember the Contract with America? A truly horrific agenda of lower taxes, term limits, government transparency, and balanced budgets. Yes, all those things being core tenets of fascism /s.
I'm 43 years old. The first time I was called a Nazi was in 7th or 8th grade -- by a history teacher no less! And what despicable, heinous viewpoint did I espouse to earn such a label?
The basic conservative Republican views of the mid 1990's.