Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls—You Won't Like the Answer

So there was a significant funeral yesterday — like every other day — for the death of one human being diminishes us all, doesn't it?

I'm not ignoring fame and outsize influence, but now that it's a new day, can we have a thought for the 400 or so Gazans killed last week? Each of them had importance, lived and breathed, and left a void. Many died young, some died by accident, all died by malice. The war that Trump promised to end continues because Trump lied about stopping it, and his friend Bibi, now officially a practitioner of genocide, prolongs it. Charlie Kirk died because someone devalued his life. Trump and Netanyahu are doing the same with multitudinous will.

Let's also have a thought for the dozen or more civilians killed in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the past week. They had families, too. Grief permeates that democratic nation on every level because Trump's vow to stop the war was another lie. He's given up because it's too hard, especially when the only human life with value is his.

Maybe there could be some national moments of silence for Detective Sergeant Cody Becker, of Detective Mark Baker, and Detective Isaiah Emenheiser of the Northern York County Regional Police Department, who were shot and killed in an ambush on September 17 while serving a warrant in Pennsylvania. They were doing their job defending the Constitution and upholding their sworn oaths. In those respects, they outdid the president: we owe them more than a passing reference in a blog posting on a Monday in September.

Countless immigrants are missing and unaccounted for. They, too, had families, children, parents, spouses…everything but due process and Christian treatment. The vaunted Trump crackdown has labeled them a menace and deemed their lives worthless. The deaths of 16 immigrants have been directly attributed to ICE's aggressiveness. Maybe a thought for those victims while we purport to honor the sanctity of human life?

On average, cancer takes 1700 lives a day. You probably know some of its victims. Trump's billionaire budget called for cutting the National Cancer Institute's budget by over 37%, about $2.7 billion. Less research, fewer researchers, more death, more sad but significant funerals. Life is cheap in Trump's world, but saving lives costs money. His choice is easy.

There have been at least 57 shootings at K-12 schools in 2025, not including the recent tragedy in Minneapolis. Of the 47 people shot in those incidents, at least 15 were killed. The surviving families will never recover from the funerals or the soul-killing events that caused them. But when Americans clamor for stricter gun laws after a mass shooting, Republicans accuse them of exploitation. Of course, when Republicans clamor for an end to free speech after a political shooting, comedians lose their jobs.

So it turns out that the funeral of Charlie Kirk was significant and sad, but so were those of Detective Mark Baker, of ten-year-old Harper Moyski, of former state representative Melissa Hortman, and of Mexican immigrant Silverio Villegas González, a single father of two boys. Either we value the lives of all individuals or we value the lives of none. That opinion was actually determined 250 years ago, but Donald Trump has no use for the Constitution—none should be surprised he places no value on our lives.

Vice-President Vance said recently, "I have talked more about Jesus Christ the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public office." If I may comment, Mr. Vice President, and feel free to share this with your boss: talking about Jesus Christ is easy; acting like him is the hard part.