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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now for my Lake Mesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Good morning, it's 8.06.
Nice to have you back here up north on this Thursday morning.
September 11 Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison Studio A2.
Brittany Merlot has the day off and she'll be off tomorrow as well getting into a long weekend.
A foggy start to her long weekend.
There's a dense fog advisory out until at least nine o'clock for much of the western half of Wisconsin.
Stick around to your local Civic Media station for your own local forecast.
Let's see normally
It's around 7 0 7 in the morning not 8 0 7 that we hear from Rob and Tiger 10 But he pops up on YouTube now to say good morning from Tiger 10 is cloudy and foggy and 58 degrees I went to Clintonville to get supplies for my CPAP machine and had homemade pizza at my sister Laurie's house in Caroline He says I didn't agree about the politics of Charlie Kirk But it makes it heartbreaking that he has a wife and two very young children who will not see their father growing up
My nephew Jim passed away from cancer in 2009.
He was 32 years old, married and had a one year old daughter that my sister Lori was talking about.
He says, we need to respect people regardless of their political beliefs.
We just need to sit down and listen to one another and exchange ideas.
And as to why we're only hearing from him now, he concludes with.
I overslept this morning.
Well, get in line because Parker Olson has been exceeding, excelling at that this week.
We have a, we have a weekly planning meeting for the show here on Wednesday afternoons.
And, um, you know, we take a roll call.
We do take attendance, but, uh, Mr. Olson was nowhere to be found.
So you'll recall that yesterday morning, he slept through his alarms and got to the station, you know, shortly before the show began.
So he was, you know,
He was clearly addicted to the sleep and needed more of it and got what he could yesterday afternoon.
You have to slide the little thing over till it turns green.
Yeah, I didn't even make the alarm.
I
Yeah, no, but understandable.
It's it's just it's fodder.
It's fodder for joshing more than anything else because you know, things go on there.
There's still somebody on the radio willing to talk.
And if you're not there, and if I'm not there, Chad Holmes will step in and fill the void.
We got a bunch of people who can fill the void anytime Chad who's never overslept in his
life ever.
I overslept twice last week.
And I'm not kidding you.
That was like the first time in many years and it happened twice last week.
It happened the day after Labor Day.
I couldn't sleep after Labor Day for some reason.
I was like,
I
couldn't sleep.
And I finally, and I look at my clock is about 20 minutes before I'm supposed to get up and start getting ready.
And then I fell asleep and I woke up and it was like, I was late.
And then a couple of days later, I set the alarm because I had not been setting the alarm.
I said, I got set the alarm.
I set the alarm, but I set the alarm to PM.
So twice in the same week, and that was not good.
Not good at all.
But as you said, there's always somebody.
I have fortunate my producer here.
He's, he's sat in for my segment as I print my way in.
There's always somebody that's willing to get in front of that microphone.
That's right.
Uh, now you, you have been busy with the microphone.
It is high school sports season.
You get the big high school sports show as well.
That was last night, correct?
It's on Wednesdays.
That is correct.
All right.
So you're, you're getting set for, this will be what?
Week three of the high school football season.
Week
four
already.
Week four already.
Wow.
Just flies on by was saying that it gets late early in the season because it's really off.
The fall sports season is quick.
The winter sports season is a long season.
It starts just before Thanksgiving and goes into about mid-March.
And you have numerous holidays that come up and it's a long season.
But boy, the football season, once it gets going, it goes by so very quickly.
Yeah.
And the weather can change very quickly.
We're still going to be in, I mean, it's going to be, it's foggy.
right now.
But I sense that things are going to be borderline perfect for football tonight around Wisconsin.
But you know, got a couple of more weeks of this, and the folks will have the gloves out, you know, and a little heavier jacket.
I'm just glad tomorrow night's looking nice, because I every week when I have a road game, I will contact the athletic director for the school that I'm going to.
And I would think that this week, I would have no problem because Wausau West is at DC Everest, and I'm happened to be the
the Wausau Western Altru but I happened to have to go on to school at DC Everest and the athletic director went to Everest and graduated the year before I did.
But no room in the end for for for old Chad.
No room at the end.
He's got to be he's got to sit outside tomorrow night so I'm glad the weather is looking good.
I'm going to be at the top of the bleachers on the visitor side.
Oh, old school.
The way our forefathers broadcast games from the top row of the visiting bleachers.
I tell
you,
because there have been nights where I've had either dealing with cold and wind, the rain, and those are bad nights.
Those are because you don't protect yourself.
You protect the equipment.
Exactly.
You can be replaced.
The equipment can't.
So sacrifice the body if need be.
Pat,
you asked me before the show if I want to talk about something.
I'm going to talk about something positive here because it's been a, you depressed me when you read Derrick Mann Ordin's Social
Media.
I was just going to read a couple
and
I realized he
had
I'm
gonna tie
it in here.
All right, you got me thinking a little bit because leadership is important and and and We don't see very often where there's an opportunity to do I think what's right for a community or a country or anything like that and this week is I Don't I don't know if I say I get surprised all that often, but I got surprised.
It was actually late last week when it when it came down like on Friday that
The mayor of Wassa, Doug Denny, who we've talked about quite a bit and at times have been critical of, and this week I said, hey, the mayor did something I think is positive for this community.
And it was nominating the former mayor, and then council a couple of nights ago approved it, Katie Rosenberg to a position, a citizen position on the police and fire commission.
It sounds like a simple thing to do, but many of the folks that provided the financial support and provided the votes that got Doug Denny into office just over a year ago, I'm certain we're not pleased that he would do anything for Katie Rosenberg.
Katie Rosenberg is much loved by many, but also, as you probably well know, is not well liked by many as well on the right.
So I give credit to the mayor of Warsaw.
no matter how this occurred.
I don't know how this actually went up from what I've heard and read that Katie Rosenberg did it the old-fashioned way.
She didn't make a call to City Hall.
She went to the City of Wausau website, which is how any of the citizens can go and and apply for a position at one of the citizen positions on these commissions.
She put in, she filled out the application, you know, in
under what experiences that she may have, that would be good for this position.
Former mayor is a pretty good one.
But I do give the mayor of Warsaw credit for doing something that is bipartisan.
And I said yesterday when I was, I made a little commentary about this, but I'm not a big fan of just throwing out the word bipartisan.
And I think you may have mentioned this in recent weeks talking about
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which was sort of an empty statement because it was an infrastructure act that was pushed through by President Joe Biden and the Democrats, maybe with a couple of stray votes here or there, but it was not a bipartisan infrastructure act.
It was an infrastructure act that was put through by the Democrats that had the power of the majority in both the Congress and in the White House at the time.
So using the term bipartisan in an empty way, I am not a big fan of.
But in
this case, I felt that though this was something
that was bipartisan.
It was a it was a mayor from one political persuasion saying that this person of another political persuasion of political adversary in in recent years is somebody that can be useful on this commission.
So you find those you have to applaud it and you have to spotlight it because it's real.
It is but it and it is sadly rare.
I mean just just that that gesture alone
only draws a deeper contrast with Republicans running the Wisconsin legislature who have fired all manner of public servants by not approving their nominations.
There are members that they have fired from the Board of Regents and other commissions who were fellow legislators.
And while you don't owe them the courtesy, you also should
maybe be able to rise above your bitter partisanship when you're looking at the people who are serving.
So again, you're being glass half full here and I'm calling attention to the half empty part of it, but only because this is the world we live in now that we have to call such attention to things that we used to take for granted because they are now
the exception to a rule that is very much, you know, crush your enemies rather than have polite disagreements.
Well, and the thing about it is that, frankly, this morning, that's kind of the way I feel in that we've all been, I mean, today's the anniversary of 9-11.
And that's just one of the tragic events that have occurred in the course of American history and world history.
And in these circumstances, and I would say that in the aftermath of a political assassination, you would look for leadership.
And again, that's why I say leadership is important.
When you hear what you said about your reading of those social media posts of Derek Van Orden, when you listened to what Donald Trump said in the Oval Office yesterday, it makes me wonder, what is the road path to any sort of engagement?
in coming together and fixing problems because there's no, I don't see any roadmap where Derek Van Orden is going to be a positive influence in fixing the overarching issue, which is of course the idea of violence in our political system.
I don't, I even, I guess I should go back and look, I can't imagine Derek Van Orden was this outraged when Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated.
theory.
No, no, in fact, made kind of a lighthearted dig at Governor Tim Walz, you know, based on politics, based on mistaken belief about the suspect.
So no, there was not something that came in kind from the Congressman from Western Wisconsin.
But again, he's talking to a particular constituency, not looking to bring people together.
There is
You know, the comment sections have become, you know, just a bit of a cesspool today, one that came in just minutes ago saying, you guys preach just as much hate as others, you're absolutely disgusting clowns.
So this guy, hey, let me jump in real fast.
If this gentleman is out there listening right now, is he admitting that, oh.
We promote hate, but you guys do it as well.
That's true.
If you're saying just as
much.
We may promote hate, but you guys do it too.
Is that the high ground that this guy wants to stand on?
I don't think that's really high ground.
I think that's a that is a very excellent point to wrap up that part of the discussion and to get us back to sports here from Chris and Appleton, who I believe is State Senator Kristen Dessler.
I'll find says I'll cheer for an evergreen wind to keep you warm.
She and I graduated the same year.
I did not know
that.
Oh,
so yeah, so when she won, I was very happy when she ran and came up just short.
I was very unhappy.
And I think that she is a wonderful public servant.
And when I talk about, you know, what I just said about Derek Van Orden, you talk about somebody that will see a problem and try to work to a good solution.
That's Kristin Dassler, all time and.
Yep.
She was, uh, she, as I like to say, some of us who graduated in the DC ever's class of 89 have done great things and other of us are talking on the radio.
Catch them on 98, nine WXC own Wausau.
Thank you, Chad.
We'll talk to you later.
Absolutely.
All right.
We'll have Sean O'Malley talking about the opening bell and Joseph Pecky yet here.
I'm Pat Crite low.
This is the civic media radio network.
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Once again, we got football tonight.
The Green Bay Packers taking on the Washington commanders at Lambeau Field.
The pregame coverage begins at five o'clock on stations around the Civic Media radio network.
If you need more football, you've got the Badgers heading to Alabama.
And what did Parker say, 20 and a half point underdogs?
That's why that's why you listen to the games because there's always the chance for that big upset in Alabama Not the team they used to be coverage begins Saturday at 9 a.m.
On some of the stations of the civic media radio network and the Brewers meanwhile They are off today.
They have a series at home against the st.
Louis Cardinals beginning tomorrow pregame at 635 Let's talk about your money in the markets now with Sean O'Malley and we're gonna start Sean good morning by talking about employment
How how else to put this soft?
This is this is a very soft the right word if we're
soft
So
there is a lot to report on that's happened in the last week here with respect to employment first We had non-farm payroll for August only 22,000 jobs were added that is incredibly soft remember I said anything below 100 is really
kind of just treading water.
So we are no longer treading water on a monthly basis there.
But we also had some revisions.
There were two right away with Friday's announcement.
They revised July's numbers.
Now July's numbers actually went up by 6,000 to 79,000.
So that was the good news.
The bad news was that June's numbers were revised downward by 27,000 to negative 13,000 jobs for that month.
That means that for the past four months reported May, June, July, and August, the grand total of jobs, not in each month, but total across all four months, is 107,000 jobs.
That is
Which, by the way, is a normal part of the process.
I know the process appears to be tainted after Trump fired, you know, the person from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But again, the numbers here, they don't lie.
And what they do is they say, look, even going back to the final year of the Biden administration, that things were a little...
softer than expected, you start by getting, you know, the estimated amount of hiring, but then later on, you go back and check what were the actual numbers of hiring and that's the revision downward that we're talking about, right?
That's that's right.
It's a little bit of a different impact because in that final 12 months, the, you know, the of the Biden administration and the first part of the Trump administration, the job ads were, you know, I'd say
around 175,000 per month in aggregate so okay you basically lost 75 of those so you're down to about 100 maybe a little over that on average per month but that's a lot healthier picture than what you're looking at four months total with a very similar number.
Yes, I mean, soft then amazingly soft due to recent events.
And that would include things that continue growing the trade deficit, which again, the new president said he was going to address.
But the trade deficit is there's still a lot of work to do, shall we say?
Well, and don't forget that was the original excuse for putting the tariffs in place.
So what's happening is that we're sort of seeing instead of trying to use the tariffs to control the trade deficit, the trade deficit is fluctuating wildly when the tariffs go on and off.
So one of the big reasons we saw this July trade deficit being much larger than forecasted, it was 78.3 billion on expectations of 64.2 billion.
So that's a 32.5% increase.
And the reason is that businesses were scrambling to stockpile goods as the August tariffs were coming into effect.
So basically what's happening is that businesses, being rational people and run by rational people, when they find out that tariffs are coming, they're going to order a bunch of inventory in advance before the tariffs hit and then just sort of go, you know,
on life support with the after-tariff environment, hoping that they will eventually be lifted and their business will be able to continue.
And instead, like you said, we continue to have the scrambling and you have farmers that are impacted by these tariffs.
Before we get ahead of ourselves and people start talking about bailouts and things like that, we have to look at the numbers as they are and anybody involved in
corn and soybeans and rice and so forth.
These have not been easy times for them.
No, no, I mean, you've seen a lot of news stories out there about how a lot of these farmers in various states are, you know, they're having these prayer vigils that, you know, that something will come and help them and save them because unfortunately the economic environment is not in their favor.
Costs have gone up.
We've talked about those fertilizer fuel.
Seeds have all gone up and part of the problem with the tariffs is that it's not just that It's more expensive necessarily due to counter tariffs to Go and sell agricultural US agricultural goods overseas But in some cases some countries are just boycotting the US products entirely case in point is soybean farmers in the US Normally last year they sold twelve point eight billion dollars of soybeans to China
Now, that soybean sales period is usually September to January, so some of them should have been occurring already.
To date, zero.
Not a single one.
We'll see if that reverses itself, but it's not a good omen.
Again, for folks that might have missed it.
Last year, in the last season, China purchasing $12.8 billion in soybeans from the U.S.
So far in this season, the number is zero.
And that's going to sting in some way, shape, or form.
And if it includes, you know, bailout checks to farmers, that may make them whole or nearly whole.
But all that does is drive up the deficits.
We're talking to Sean O'Malley about your money and the markets.
We'll have a little bit more after the opening bell in just a sec.
And then we will talk to Joseph Eke about some of the headlines in the news as well.
Remember, you can sign up for our newsletters.
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It includes our question of the week and this week,
What caused Donald Trump's flip-flop on releasing the Epstein files?
Did he see that he was named in there in a more damaging way that he had expected?
Is he protecting somebody?
Is he blackmailing somebody?
Or is it all a hoax, as he claims?
The first people to get to answer that are the folks that subscribe to our Sunday morning newsletter, UpNorthNewsWI.com.
All right, let's get back in touch with Sean O'Malley here who is a financial compliance data governance and risk management expert He's a Hudson native certified anti-money laundering specialist He has worked with city group Ford Motor Credit Deloitte and who's Morgan Stanley and many more and he is We are very honored to have him following some of the economic indicators for us and Sean as we talk about stagflation
the combination of higher inflation and lower employment, where are the new inflation figures showing us where we're at?
Well, Pat, the good news is they're right along with forecast expectations, but the bad news is it's up.
So inflation continues to track upwards.
regular CPI was reported at 2.9% up from 2.7 in July.
So that's definitely tracking upwards moving sort of in line with what we're seeing with the personal consumption expenditure index, which is the one that the Fed actually watches more than the CPI core CPI though showed something interesting.
It was up 3.1%.
And one of the references there was that we're seeing higher food costs.
And I'm sure a lot of people
can attest to that based on the grocery bills.
And
So we've got to pick up where we were last week with Harry Truman and the one handed economist.
When we talk about the Federal Reserve and the next meeting about
you know on the one hand looking at inflation or on the other hand looking at jobs what what exactly what are their choices a and b here when it comes to emphasizing one or the other
low employment or soft employment, you've got a lower interest rates.
Can't do both.
So the Fed has a Fed Open Market Committee meeting next week on the 16th and 17th.
We'll find out what happens.
However, I can tell you based on, excuse me, the secondary revision downward of the, you know, 911,000 jobs down from up to and including March of 2025.
that the odds makers are saying that the odds of a larger cut more than just 25 basis points, which is one quarter of 1%.
They're saying the odds of going and having a one half percent reduction have gone up due to the software employment number.
So clearly the market is expecting that the Federal Reserve will cut rates and address the employment situation rather than the inflation situation.
And of course, lead to all kinds of speculation about the political pressure coming from the White House as well.
Sean O'Malley, with your money in the markets after the opening bell.
Sean, thank you so much.
Take care.
Pat.
All right.
Again, a reminder, the Packers are playing tonight.
And if you have a tough time finding the game on Amazon Prime or wherever it is here, you should catch it on the radio.
Several civic media stations have it pregame coverage beginning at five o'clock.
839 now the time and let's bring in Joseph Peckie and Today is not is not our our best day.
It's it's 9-11 and There's a lot to say about that.
There was of course a political murder yesterday in Utah and then even closer to home I have been where Joe and Melissa are and that is having to say goodbye to a cherished family
pet.
My condolences, Joe, I know that this is not easy.
And maybe you didn't even want to talk about it on the radio, but I just wanted to say for all of us who've had to be in your shoes that we're thinking of you.
it.
those lives lost 24 years ago.
This is not where anybody wants to be, but we're going to do our best because it is important that we talk about all of this stuff and hopefully make people smarter and give them some perspective.
And on at least two of those three things, two of those three tragedies, I'm prepared to offer some perspective of my own.
See this is why it's always tough to come up with with follow-up questions for you because you say it all right the first time that we just want it We need to talk through this and hope that people are a little smarter and get a little bit more perspective as a result of this and You know the the overarching theme Needs to be and should be that
Political violence is is never the answer violence is not politics all of that that should be the overarching theme that unites people across the political spectrum Unfortunately, we can I thought we were gonna spend a lot of time talking like that.
Yeah, but the fact that you have people who are stoking
This who are driving the wedge deeper in the results and it's not just the usual trolls and keyboard warriors Okay, I I could tolerate that we've had a lot of them in the sandbox this morning who want to throw a fistful of sand and you know Somehow that makes them feel better It shouldn't but that's that's who they are But one of them is a member of Congress from Wisconsin and Derek van Orden's dozens of tweets
uh stoking division talking up violence and civil war uh everything he pretends not to be when he's getting all this fluffy coverage from too many local media outlets uh can't go without mention he's not just another troll joe this is somebody who should his communication should be concerning to not just every voter in the third congressional district but every person living in the third district and in wisconsin overall
And I think the best way to approach comments like Mr. Van Ordens yesterday or Congresswoman Nancy Maces is to try to show a little grace.
And how I will choose to do that is to offer some perspective on how I have felt some of the other instances and occasions of political violence going back to
the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona.
Almost everybody knows her story, so we won't go through all of that.
And as I was thinking about yesterday and having some pretty raw conversations, including with Republicans in my life, when something like this happens and you are in the political world in the way that members of Congress are, or in the way that I and my wife are,
um you lose some of the remove and it feels like it is something that has happened to you and you have to grapple with the potential that something like this could happen not just to you directly but someone you love or someone you know and I say that as someone who got a voicemail from a
just a family member, not somebody I'm super close with and see all the time.
It was like, hey, I know you're out there and I just want you to know I'm thinking about you.
And when emotions are raw, people are not at their best.
I'm not at my best this week because of what we've lost in our own home.
And so rather than descend further down that spiral of darkness,
that Dr. King talked about, the descending spiral of violence.
I just think we have to try to show grace.
I don't think Derek Van Orden thinks that the flag has dropped on the next civil war in this country.
I think that he and people who are in the MAGA movement are feeling personally attacked and like it is something that has happened to them.
And that is true.
At the same time, it is true that
We live in politically violent times and it's the work of all of us from, you know, organizers and activists to elected officials to our broader society.
We have to find our way out of this.
We have before when you think about the length of time when Dr. King and President Kennedy and Senator Bobby Kennedy were all gunned down.
That was an incredibly turbulent time in America, not just in our politics, but in our society and in our culture.
And we found a way through it.
And maybe the best thing we can do today is stop pretending that we don't live in politically violent times.
We do.
Gabby Gifford, Steve Scalise, Paul Pelosi, State Senator Melissa Homan, now Charlie Kirk, January 6th.
These are...
politically violent times, and it is now the work of a generation to move beyond it, to remember that as much as I disagreed with almost everything that Charlie Kirk ever said on the platforms he had and how vehemently I disagree with his worldview, no American should ever face physical violence, much less murder, for what they believe.
And
Maybe that's how we get past it and move forward is just say this is not about we can't get to a period of political violence We're in one and now we got to get out of it and we have to recognize each other's humanity Not just at the micro level, but at the macro every American and everyone who aspires to be American and every fellow citizen of the world has some basic rights to live freely
And we as Americans should be on the side of we want more people in more places around the world to enjoy the freedoms that this country has for a very long time, including the right to free speech.
And so I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's how I'm thinking about this today is, okay, we're here.
Now we got to get out of here.
We do.
And there is no
there is no way but forward you can't sit and dwell on this because we don't we we have we have moved along since 9 11 while not forgetting we have moved on since Columbine uh but well not forgetting but saying well the next day is here what are we going to do with this next day uh Charlie Kirk was one of on average 300 people shot every day in America every day and about 125 people in this country every day
die from gun violence, setting aside the political notion of this.
And, you know, that that is the larger issue here.
But we are a nation that is essentially figuratively under the gun.
And need to remind ourselves that that Charlie Kirk was one of about 125 people murdered by guns yesterday.
And that that discussion is not going to go away, nor is this daily list of carnage until
some of our conversations turn to, how can we reduce this?
How can we work together to reduce this?
We're not going to agree on everything, but.
We got to find something, and I've left you all of 30 seconds here to give me your best answer.
Let's look to the people who are trying to make a positive impact, including some Wisconsin Democrats who, in memory of the late Jonathan Brostoff, are advancing legislation that would allow people to put themselves on a do not sell firearms list.
That is legislation that I think even the strongest Second Amendment proponent would say somebody can self say.
Don't sell me a gun for a year.
I'm not in a great place.
That doesn't solve all of this, but it gets us more focused on solutions rather than the awfulness of the problem.
It is a step.
More with Joseph Pecky and some final news and notes from Lake Wissota.
Coming up, I'm Pat Krightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Coming up next, Matt Nair on air.
Greg Bach in.
Jane continues a little break here.
Greg's guests include former U.S.
Attorney Jim Santel and Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area.
And Jim Santel will, of course, join us tomorrow as our usual weekend review panel coming up in the 7 o'clock hour tomorrow.
All right, a little point to personal privilege here, and then we'll get back to our conversation with Joseph Pecky.
If you did not catch the very first part of the show today, that is where I shared my feelings on Charlie Kirk and his murder yesterday and letting the record show that I am beyond angry at the idiot who committed this crime.
He or she did not have permission to take a life, no matter how much you disagreed with that person.
I disagreed with this person a lot and I put it all out there.
just after six o'clock this morning, because before anybody goes and turns somebody into a martyr, let's make clear what the record showed about Charlie Kirk.
And then it makes it that much more upsetting to say the way to address that is not through a bullet, but through ballots.
and we've had that theme today and throughout the day, I'm sure.
But if you missed that and want to listen back, you can catch the 6 a.m.
hour either through the Civic Media website or follow the program on Spotify or on Apple.
We're going to turn our discussion now to 9-11 and commemorate that with just some memories and remembering the sacrifices and the souls that were lost.
Joe, I'll go first and say that on September 11, 2001,
I was actually sleeping in because I was anchoring the six and ten o'clock news and so I got a call from a friend and co-worker saying turn on your TV and At that point I was I just could not take my eyes off the screen for about two and a half hours Shortly after the second building collapsed and the phone rang and it was my news director saying you better come in and we started doing live local updates because remember at the time
Nobody knew nobody knew how many planes there were nobody knew that this was pretty much restricted to Washington DC and Shanksville, Pennsylvania And also to you know, New York City We didn't know so there were local updates throughout and we were on air until just after midnight and we signed off and Got in my car and cried like a baby It was it was just such a it was just such an anguishing
day and I don't know your memories at all but I did want to give you a chance to share either memories or observations.
The summer just before I had been an intern on Capitol Hill and I think some of what I remember of that day informs how I'm feeling today in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination and what I said that
There are folks who feel like it happened to them, and as someone who had been on Capitol Hill every day, going to work during the summer, and that throughout the day, as we didn't know if more planes were headed to the Capitol or other parts of D.C., it was terrifying.
And there's an Alan Jackson song that would ask him, what did you do?
I called my mom.
I was at sophomore in college who fell someone's CNN at night.
Spoiler alert, I've been a nerd for a very long time.
And when somebody in the hallway was banging on doors and telling people to turn on the TV, it turned it on just as the second tower was hit.
And it's a day that it's hard to put into words what it has meant for this country.
But this morning, I am certainly, and maybe there's a through line and a theme here,
thinking about the helpers, thinking about the heroes, whether it's Todd Beamer and the crew of Flight 93 who saved untold lives by storming the cockpit, whether it's the man in the red bandana who raced into the World Trade Center to help people get out, whether it's the 343 New York City firefighters who knew as they went back in that they might not come out.
And there have always been people who are willing to do the right thing and try to help others even when the odds are against you.
And maybe that's the way we have to connect what happened yesterday with what happened 24 years ago is we all need to remember that sometimes it's pretty easy.
There's a right and a wrong and helping your fellow man and woman being somebody who does the right thing.
and tries to be of service to others is something that we can all do.
The heroes of 9-11 were not politicians.
They were ordinary folks trying to live their version of the American dream.
And may all of those lives lost memories remain a blessing.
And may we all get through all of these dark, scary times into a brighter future.
And let's just all be better to each other.
And to that end on the text line from Tiffany in River Falls, Joe, sending love to you and your family as we have recently gone through the loss of a dog.
Thank you for keeping us grounded during these difficult times.
And again, it's just nice to see, it's nice to see the shreds of humanity, which are necessary because I think we're doing a disservice if we don't
point out the instances that, you know, endanger our peace and our unity.
And that sounds divisive, but let me reemphasize.
Calling out somebody else's divisiveness is not divisive.
Calling out somebody else's racism is not racist.
Calling out somebody else's sexism is not sexist.
Let us look for those ways that we can be better to one another without overlooking
the shortcomings and the challenges ahead of us.
And I think it's just more dialogue, Joe, with people like you that are going to get us there.
you,
I appreciate you as well, sir.
Thank you very much.
Take care.
Have a good day out there.
And thanks to all of you for being here with us as well.
Again, Matt and air on air coming up next Greg back in and then Todd all but two o'clock and so much more all across the civic media radio network and we will do this again tomorrow morning here up north bright and early at 6am.
In the meantime, follow what we do over at up north news wi.com.
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Have
a great day.
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