{"id":830,"date":"2025-09-11T03:35:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davecarrera.com\/?p=830"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:35:25","slug":"sticks-and-stones-words-vs-bullets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davecarrera.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/sticks-and-stones-words-vs-bullets\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk has been killed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.<\/strong><br>That was once a playground truth, a resilience we were encouraged to carry into adult life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But today, we live in a culture where words are treated as violence, and yet real violence is dismissed as politics, protest, or \u201ccontext.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tragic killing of Charlie Kirk in the United States is a reminder: bullets in the neck are not metaphors. They are not \u201churt feelings.\u201d They are final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/davecarrera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/108197192-17575371621757537159-41585744579-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davecarrera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/108197192-17575371621757537159-41585744579-1080pnbcnews.jpg 750w, https:\/\/davecarrera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/108197192-17575371621757537159-41585744579-1080pnbcnews-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We must stop criminalizing speech and excusing violence. Offence is taken, never given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When words are treated as crimes, but violence is tolerated or justified, society crosses a line it may never return from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This cannot stand. <strong>Enough is enough.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u201cHope isn\u2019t what they promise you. It\u2019s how you carry on when they don\u2019t deliver.\u201d \u2014 Dave Carrera<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.That was once a playground truth, a resilience we were encouraged to carry into adult life. But today, we live in a culture where words are treated as violence, and yet real violence is dismissed as politics, protest, or \u201ccontext.\u201d The tragic killing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[333,250,332,25,334,296],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-free-speech","tag-hate-crime","tag-politics","tag-society","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Charlie Kirk has been killed - The Other Side of Dave<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When society criminalises words but excuses violence, it crosses a dangerous line. 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