Charlie Kirk Did It Right

Charlie Kirk was guided by the idea that persuasion is the primary means of change.

His death marks a pivotal moment in America, and conservatives should respond “by drawing a line that Kirk himself exemplified: debate is healthy; violence is unacceptable,” Christopher Rufo writes. “We should honor his legacy by standing firmly on principle, engaging in political debate, and, when necessary, enforcing the law against those who would organize violence in the name of politics.”

New York governor Kathy Hochul recently cheered a federal program that enables the state’s schools to expand free school meals to more students. Typically reserved for children from families with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, the Community Eligibility Provision “allows schools to claim full federal subsidies for providing free lunches to wealthier students if their proportion of eligible low-income pupils qualifies,” Chris Pope explains. But the expansion gives schools little incentive to spend more than the per meal limit ($4.69), which means significantly reduced food quality. And that’s just one of many consequences.

“Others include worsening kids’ diets, increasing obesity, costing parents more time and money, and further burdening taxpayers,” Pope points out. “What began as targeted aid for the poor has morphed into a middle-class entitlement, entrenching a government-first model of social policy that prizes the appearance of equality over genuine improvements in child welfare.”

Read more about the program here.

You may have heard the story of 18-year-old Mackenzi Felmlee. She was living with a foster family in Illinois for four years under court supervision. A caseworker visited the home two days before she died last year.

Felmlee’s foster parents killed her. They deprived her of food and water, beat her, and recorded her suffering as she died from an untreated blood clot.

How could this happen?

“Until DCFS [the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services] releases a thorough investigation of the events leading up to her death (something they have routinely failed to do in other cases), we cannot be sure,” Sarah A. Font writes. “But information released so far points to a problem that plagues nearly every child-protection system in the country: the inability to recruit, train, and retain high-quality workers.”

Read more about Felmlee’s case and the failure of America’s foster-care system.

When the Trump administration announced that it would review Smithsonian museums to ensure that they “reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story,” many critics claimed that the White House was attempting to stifle free speech.

Not quite, Jeffrey H. Anderson writes. Rather, the “review is a necessary step to reclaim for the American people institutions that have long been controlled by the Left,” he observes.

Read more about what Anderson refers to as the museums’ “one-dimensional story of oppression.”

“I’ve tried for more than fifty years to get that war out of my life.

Never happened, never will.

I still miss you, brother.”

Photo credit: Nordin Catic / Contributor / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images