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Polly Frost's avatar

When I was a kid, JFK was assassinated. I was at a Pasadena private school with students from almost entirely Republican families. A teacher asked my class who was a Republican - every hand but from two of us went up. I was one of the two. The assassination news was given to us during recess. A number of my classmates cheered and applauded.

Fast forward to 911. I was living in NYC. The plane went right over our apartment building, so low the workmen on the roof jumped to the ground. A lot of the footage you saw was shot on that roof by a NYT videographer who was our neighbor. We, thankfully, were away in Canada, although we had to get a rental car and drive back immediately because my husband was needed at Newsweek. The weekend after, I went to a large birthday dinner party for my fiction and humor editor at The New Yorker, Dan Menaker. I adored Dan, but I had to leave early because I found the talk at my table too upsetting - it was all people in media and publishing and I couldn't take the way they laughed off the carnage and the towers falling. I did not vote for Bush and was against our Middle Eastern policies but the people who died were just going to work or traveling on a plane.

Some time later, a friend of mine who was a longtime friend of Berry Berenson, who was on that plane, made public fun of Berry's sister, the model Marisa for being so distraught on 9/11, calling her a drama queen. All I could say was “Can you imagine having to see a family member die like that on tv?”

The heartlessness of the Left right now is nothing new. I saw it after 911 and in Republican children back in 1963. We just have to go forward carrying Charlie Kirk in our hearts and not let the toxicity going on right now keep us from honoring the good Charlie did.

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THOMAS COLE JD's avatar

A good report. I do wonder if the SB Current requires all writers to provide data proofs for their stories? Because it seems such requirements would hamstring most articles.

Mr. Eringer’s style is such that you simply must assume he’s onto something and you follow along breathlessly to see what happens next. If such data proof requirements were in place, none of this great exciting writing would be possible.

Writers need space and freedom to weave and create the world as they see fit to conjure their message, whether it’s purely factual or a mix of opinion, facts and conjecture.

Editors can ruin certain pieces by not recognizing these particular modes and styles, and over editing to create what the editor believes is the correct content and style. Thankfully with Mr Eringer’s work this does not happen.

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