Episode 285- Healing the Divide: After Charlie Kirk

The assassination of Charlie Kirk has shaken our nation to its core, prompting a raw, emotional response from Rich Helppie in this urgent episode of The Common Bridge. Beyond expressing profound grief for Kirk's family and friends, Helppie grieves for America itself – a country increasingly torn apart by political violence and dehumanizing rhetoric.

With unflinching clarity, Helppie dissects how our political discourse has deteriorated to the point where bullets replace dialogue. He identifies a troubling pattern: public figures condemn violence while simultaneously qualifying their statements with justifications that essentially blame victims for provoking their attackers. This "it's not okay, but..." mentality reveals how deeply entrenched our tribal divisions have become.

Drawing from historical examples like the Civil War and World War II, Helppie reminds us that even the bloodiest conflicts ultimately end through conversation, not continued violence. Tribalism, left unchecked, ends only with the eradication of the opposing side – a path that leads to unspeakable suffering. Instead, he advocates for finding common ground on issues like immigration, healthcare, and free speech, emphasizing that extreme positions on either side offer false choices rather than workable solutions.

The episode concludes with a powerful call to action: turn away from rage-inducing media, abandon recycled partisan narratives, and engage in genuine conversations with those who hold different views. As Helppie puts it, "Quit thinking your tribe is going to win. All it will mean is more carnage." The path forward requires recognizing our shared humanity and working together to build the common bridge our divided nation desperately needs.

Subscribe to The Common Bridge on Substack.com or the Substack app to join this vital conversation about healing America's deepening divides. Your voice matters in creating the more perfect union we all deserve.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to this episode of Season 6 of the
Common Bridge, where policy andcurrent events are discussed in
a fiercely nonpartisan manner.
The host, richard Helpe, is aphilanthropist, entrepreneur and
political analyst who hasreached over 5 million listeners
, viewers and readers around theworld.
With our surging growth inaudience and subscriptions, the
Common Bridge continues toexpand its reach.

(00:22):
The show is available on theSubstack website and the
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expand its reach.
The show is available on theSubstack website and the
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You can also find us on YouTubeand wherever you get your
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
And welcome to the Common Bridge, rich.
Today we were going to do amailbag, but in light of what
happened yesterday with theassassination of Charlie Kirk, I
think we probably should talkabout that instead, so we can
push that mailbag off to adifferent time.
It's 24 hours later when ithappened.
You and I were together when ithappened.
Actually, what are yourthoughts a day after?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I will say my grief is intense and it's intense not
only for the family and thefriends of Charlie Kerr, but I'm
grieving for this country,brian.
But I'm grieving for thiscountry, brian.

(01:50):
We began the and they're calledthe Republican Party, the
Democratic Party and theestablished media ecosystem that
is designed to enrage people.
It's designed to dehumanizepeople.
We had the murder of theexecutive in New York, nate

(02:10):
Coffin, and I thinkUnitedHealthcare is a horrible
company with a very uncaring,anti-human business model, and
we've written about that andtalked about that.
But we're talking about we needto make policy changes.
Charlie Kirk the people on theright say, look, he is a free
speech advocate, he's going outand carrying an agenda and he's

(02:36):
discussing policy and countrydirection and engaging with
people.
And I don't know if he evergets testy with people.
I've looked at dozens of videoand he's just talking to people
the way we used to.
And then I hear people on theleft saying, well, you know,
wait a minute, he was a bad guy.
He apparently somebody isalleging was against the Civil

(02:59):
Rights Act.
People saying, well, he wasthreatening trans people and the
like.
And we've got one set of factsand at least two sets of reality
.
But it would seem that we couldagree that there would be a
better way to resolve the dividethan guns, because once the

(03:26):
killing starts, it's never thelast one.
It's not like oh well, thisside shot that guy on that side,
so now it's done.
No, this is not the way thesethings end.
Tribalism ends with theeradication of a tribe, which
means all the people are dead.
The language is outlawed andwiped out.

(03:47):
People are kicked out of theirhomes, their homes are burned to
the ground and they're gone.
That's the way tribalism ends.
Or there's dialogue to end awar.
Think about the great wars thatended.
The Civil War of the UnitedStates ended at Appomattox
Courthouse and that was over.
World War II ended with thefour great powers coming

(04:11):
together to accept anunconditional surrender.
It was discussion.
And now this notion that oneside can justify shooting
someone on the other side.
And look to be fair, which weneed to be.
We've seen violence go bothways.
I don't want to get into titfor tat.
Well, your killing was betterthan my killing, or something

(04:34):
like that.
That's just crazy, and this isa time when the only message
should be let's talk, let's talk, let's not, let's go into
policy.
We have great problems in thiscountry and we have great
opportunities, and what'smissing is a functioning

(04:58):
political system that says wegot hired, elected to deal with
health care, firearms,immigration, affordability, the
economy, the quality of life inour cities, the freedoms that
are enshrined.
That's what we're here for.
The fourth estate is supposedto hold those people we elect

(05:20):
accountable.
And look, the first media runwent right down the partisan
lines that Mr Kirk had not yetdied and there was a list of
here's all the people you know.
Know Gretchen Whitmer was akidnap target and you know Steve
Scalise was shot on a balldiamond.
But one publication only listedthose to the right of center

(05:45):
and the other ones only listedthose to the left of center.
And when you step back, it'severybody.
I've read a lot that there arepeople that are coming out and
they're absolutely condemningmurder, absolutely condemning
violence.
What I'm listening for is willthey turn to a better day, which
is dialogue and what you hearon most of well, maybe not most.

(06:09):
Let me back up a little bit.
Hear on most of well, maybe notmost.
Let me back up a little bit.
Too frequently you hear well,hey, this isn't okay, but let me
read something.
This was actually written by apublic school superintendent.
I will not identify theindividual, I will not give you
a clue what state, where,whatever, and also this

(06:31):
individual, after getting asignificant backlash, did modify
their position.
But here was the first take.
What happened at Utah State isnot okay.
Great, got to say that Verynext thing.
But I am not surprised becausenow listen, you cannot pitch a

(06:52):
tent on a college campus anddemean, insult and prod at the
lived experience of other humanbeings and be naive to the fact
that every human being has abreaking point.
So begins it with it's not okay.
But then, hey, you put a tenton a college campus and you

(07:13):
engage in debate which iscaptioned as demeaning,
insulting and prodding.
Everybody can make their ownjudgment on that.
And then listen.
Here's the next part.
This close-minded man learnedthis lesson today in the worst
way possible.
He deserved.
It is what this is saying, andthere's no question.
And this writer has got a PhD.
He knows the English language,knows what this is saying.
And there's no question.

(07:33):
And this writer has got a PhD,he knows the English language,
knows what he's saying.
Here's the next part.
I will send thoughts andprayers for his recovery.
He had not died yet, but then Iwill hope and pray that he
finds opportunity to reflect.
A bullet in the neck is whatthis man deserved, according to
this writer.
And he says let's be kinder andgentler to one another Really.

(07:58):
And so that's the backing offof well, yeah, we shouldn't have
shot him.
And look just at someone that,within the last two weeks,
posted from a bot account thatmaybe the so-called blue states
could use nukes to contain theso-called red states.
But upon the tragedy in Utahwas, well, hey, this is

(08:23):
absolutely wrong.
Now, as an optimist, I'm likethat's progress, all right, this
has gone too far.
We've got to put an end to it.
And what I've consistently saidon my program is this we will
keep getting these kind ofpeople in our legislatures, in

(08:44):
our executive branch and ourjudiciary as long as we keep
accepting it.
We will keep getting thisestablished media ecosystem
sending hate and drivel innarrative down to us as long as

(09:06):
we keep consuming it.
So what my plea is to thelisteners, the readers and the
viewers of the Common Bridge isthis Please, you're not going to
win this debate, whether you'recoming from the far right or
the far left.
I've said this umpteen timesNobody is going to drag a person

(09:29):
from one edge to the other allthe way to the other and vice
versa, but maybe can we findsome place in the middle.
And if we could start with freespeech?
I think the Civil Rights Act isa great thing.
Apparently, mr Kirk said well,it created a special class of

(09:52):
citizens, and I vehemently arguewith that, because it
eliminated barriers that createda subclass of people that could
not get public accommodations.
We needed that legislation, andit was put in place by
conservatives, and so CharlieKirk was out of step with

(10:13):
traditional conservatism, ifthat's indeed what he said.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Well, rich, we can go down the list of some of the
things, but he didn't like transpeople.
And you know what about peoplecelebrating JFK and Martin
Luther King's death when I cameout, I don't think that's the
point.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Exactly that.
So this is where human natureis bad and you know there were
people that and I heard it withmy own ears with Martin Luther
King.
It was horrible, it was 100%racist.
And JFK I was a little youngfor that, but I do remember the
day and I do know that peopledid celebrate that it's nothing

(10:47):
to celebrate because somethingwill happen.
And look as far as a transperson and this is where we've
had trans people since thebeginning of humankind okay,
People get to pick how they wantto present it's life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
And if your pursuit ofhappiness means you want to be

(11:11):
what they call gendernonconforming, you've got my
heartfelt support.
And, like my ninth grade civicsteacher told me, your rights to
swing your arm end at the pointof the other guy's nose.
So exercise your rights,respect other people's rights.
And, of course, we have a dutyto children.
We have a duty to facts, wehave a duty to the truth.

(11:34):
Trans people have lived inhumankind and in the United
States of America forever.
There's a famous stagecoachdriver that was very heroic,
whose name I can't remember andupon their death discovered it
was female, not a man.
So this is not new and we don'tneed to find a reason to hate
other people.
We can't stand by and letpeople that desperately need

(11:59):
help not get it where they do,escalating violence until okay,
now the system will take them inand do something with the
carnage that's behind us.
We need better choices oneverything I mean you think
about immigration millions andmillions of people coming in

(12:20):
unvetted, uncovered, versus nowwe have armed people on our
behalf, going throughneighborhoods and factories and
Home Depots looking for people.
We have the National Guard out.
So I'm against wanting openborders and I don't like the
idea of a police force randomlygoing in.
We've got to have a betteranswer than those two extremes,
period, and we can do this withthe proviso it's the powers in

(12:45):
our hands.
Quit thinking your tribe isgoing to win.
All it will mean is morecarnage.
Quit listening to the peoplethat get you enraged.
They've been lying to you.
They've been lying to you for along time.
Turn them off.
Find another human being andtalk to them, and when you say
murder is wrong, make sure thenext thing out of your mouth

(13:08):
isn't but we can do this America.
We can do this human race.
We're better than what's goingon.
Let go of the narrative.
Let's join our hearts, oursouls and every ounce of energy
that we have to making this amore perfect union, just like
we've been trying to do forseveral hundred years perfect

(13:32):
union, just like we've beentrying to do for several hundred
years.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Rich, those are great comments, and I think we both
welcome anybody who listens orreads or watches this particular
episode.
Comment comment online.
We want to hear from you aswell.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah, and the challenge is not tell me why
that other guy's wrong.
Tell me how we can cometogether.
If you're a really far left,you know and it's not even right
and left, so much anymore let'sjust say anti-MAGA person.
You loathe Donald Trump and hegives us a lot of reasons to not
like him.
So say you're one of thosepersons.
Go find a person that idolizeshim and say can we have a talk?

(14:04):
And if you're a person that isa hardcore MAGA or conservative,
please go find somebody andhave a conversation.
And when you're talking, both ofyou aren't allowed to use the
narrative that's been fed to us.
You can't use the soundbites,you can't use the shit that's

(14:25):
put out on memes.
You're going to put out whatyour experiences are.
And if you think this isdifficult, let me tell you
something.
It's in your own apartmentbuilding.
It's on your block.
It's the person next door.
Quit avoiding each other.
It's the person on your socialmedia feed.
Let's get rid of the haters,let's get rid of the agendas,

(14:45):
let's do better.
And, brian, right now I'm likeI just need to say this Brian,
this is your host, rich Helpe,promising a mailbag episode soon
.
Thank you so much for yourcorrespondence and this is your
host, rich.
Helpe signing off on the CommonBridge.

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