5-1-25

Yesterday we spent some time talking through Trump’s first 100 days…..we asked

all of you to give your favorite and least favorite things about the first 100 days of

Trump 2.0….the feedback came flooding in…..lots’ of high points, and I’d say the

border being controlled was generally speaking the number one favorite of the

Rightside audience…..the least favorite thing kind of ran the gamut….but one

thing I did not expect was the number of people who expressed that their least

favorite thing about Trumps first 3 months is that no one has gone to jail

yet……there is apparently a desire to see some perp walks, like that will be the

salve on the wounds that we need…..for some it was Epstein list perpetrators, for

other its FBI, or Jan 6, or Biden admin members……I get it….and I will agree on the

one hand that if somebody committed an actual crime that I want to see them

behind bars myself…..I’m an Attorney, I love the rule of law…..I love the fact that

we are a nation of laws and I despise those who would flaunt the laws for their

own gain….but there is a process, a real process…..a process that we would all

want for ourselves….there is also an image…..I don’t want all the things they said

about Trump being vengeful, rogueish, and a disrespecter of the law, to be given

any fuel for the left to burn…..I believe that someone will walk the walk of shame

on any number of issues and it will take finding the actual evidence, not just

finding a good mad……

The left is determined to make us out to be cult followers of a grand

dictator….they call us nazis and sycophants…..and we’re not…..we have to

sometimes take the time and put in the effort to flip the script…..to actually

confront the lie and lay out the truth…..and get the evidence, get the indictment,

get all of the legal ducks in a row, make an ironclad case….because if we don’t

then we are no better than Adam Schiff who swore he saw the Russian collusion

evidence that never existed, or Adam Kinzinger who swore that Jan 6 was an

actual insurrection and worked to ruin lives…..or Merrick Garland who arrested

grandmothers for praying in front of abortion clinics……

As I was thinking this through I was reminded of something that happened many

moons ago in college……it was the University of South Alabama in the mid-

80’s…..the Spring of 1986 if recall…..I was very involved in campus activities and

was serving then as the Vice President of Student Government……came a day

when this guy showed up on campus going by the name of Brother Jim….I’ve told

you about him before……he was a weird dude…..an odd bird and professed to be

an evangelist of some type…..what he really amounted to was a rabble rouser

with a Bible in his hand…..don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for

laying it out strong like John the Baptist but this guy was not that guy….he was

just weird as he stood in the student commons for days and yelled at students,

calling them names while waving his Bible in the air, even hissing at them…..all

the while claiming that God did not love them until they repented of their evil

ways….meanwhile his chosen means of spreading the good news of God’s love for

the world was to demean, belittle, criticize and generally act the fool…..not only

that but he just looked like someone who was not right in the head….it was like

cousin Eddie from Christmas vacation showed up with a mean streak……and to

say it drew a crowd was an understatement. For some of the hundreds who came

daily to hear his diatribes it was comedy, to others it was disturbing, to me it

made me mad……I felt like he was making a mockery of God…..well, I wanted him

gone……I was Vice President of Student Government and I was ready to call for his

head…..have campus security haul him away while everybody watched….. In my

opinion he was making God look like goober and I was having none of it, he was

absolutely creating the wrong image and portraying nothing of the God who so

loved the world that he gave his only Son…..I talked with campus authorities, the

deal came down to the fact that the SGA had the authority to request his

removal…..but he was otherwise not breaking any laws they said…..Ok, well like I

said I was the Vice President of the SGA….and then it ramped up when my sweet

fiancé Charlene (who I have now been married to for over 38 years) was walking

past the commons when Brother Jim spotted her wearing something that he did

not approve of and yelled out …… “you hussy!” and called on her to

repent…..never knowing that she already loved the Lord and was already serving

as a volunteer leader with YoungLife ministries and changing kids lives…..well,

that did it for me…..I got my friend Mike on the line who was the President of the

SGA and said “Mike, we’ve got to do something. He needs to go!”…..to my

surprise Mike refused……he said “Phil, I can’t stand him either but he has a

constitutional right to say those things. There is no law being broken here. If we

kick him off campus then who is next?”……it didn’t matter how many ill-advised

“yeah, but’s….” that I uttered, Mike held firm and would not agree….then he said

something which really struck a chord….one that I’ve never forgotten…..he said,

“Phil, if you believe he’s wrong then go out there tomorrow and counter his

message. People will listen. You have as much right as he does to speak”……..I

didn’t want to…..I just wanted him canceled…..but I couldn’t argue any

more….Mike was right…..and in a way, I was right…..but what hit me right then

was that it was possible to be right, and still be wrong……so I geared up, prayed

up, studied up…..I literally tabbed my own Bible and made notes and studied and

asked for some other folks to give me advice and to be praying at a certain

time……the next day I was just about as nervous as a pig in a bacon factory…..but I

went down to the commons and sure enough there was ol’ Brother Jim….and as

he yelled, and accused and threatened in the name of God I walked out in front of

all of those students….several hundred although it felt like thousands…..and I

walked up to Brother Jim and he literally hissed at me….I kid you not, he crouched

a bit and pointed his finger, and hissed like a cat….it was weird man….and I asked

the crowd if they wanted to hear what the Bible really had to say about how God

feels about us……well, the crowd went nuts and so I read a few verses…..and then

Brother Jim screamed….and then I read some more….and this went on for 10-15

minutes…..and then Brother Jim just threw his hands up in the air, literally, and

walked away…..If I recall he left campus that day…..

Some say he was just a guy pulling a stunt….that his whole schtick was designed

to get folks to come speak up…..I don’t think so….I think he had a message that

was wrong and it took a message that was right to counter it….

Here’s why I say all of that…..because what I learned that day is that as badly as I

want the ranks of conservatism to grow that it won’t ever grow by virtue of cancel

culture…..I wanted Brother Jim gone, canceled, kaput…..my friend Mike reminded

me that what was really needed was a healthy dose of truth…..that truth is the

greatest defense to a lie…..but that truth left untold is of no value…..the truth

must make it into the public sphere, into the hearing of others, for it to take root

and do any good…….now to be sure, how you present it matters as well….even

the Apostle Paul said that he had come to the point where he knew he had to

relate to his audience in order to win them over…..not that his message changed,

just that he made sure it was presented in a manner in which his audience could

receive it……and oh by the way, it doesn’t mean that you will persuade

everyone….you can get over that idea……..there are those who are already

entrenched in the lie, or that need the lie, or that benefit from the lie…….but

there are those who I believe are still in the majority that simply want to know

the truth and it might take you or I speaking it……it might take us patiently

working through the process to get an true and enforceable indictment for the

crimes that were perpetrated….and yes, I believe there were definitely some that

were committed…..but we do it right….we lock it in….we make it bulletproof……so

that when the news becomes public and the perp takes their walk we don’t wind

up with egg on our faces, or give the left a stronger message to attack us

with…..and that does not happen in 90 days…..

All I know is this…..the freedom to be wrong is just as strong in this great nation as

the freedom to be right…..but in the end the truth is the right side to be on….and

if we don’t like a message, a cultural shift, a mantra of the left, then we can either

sit back and wait for someone else to do something…..or we can speak the truth

and see what happens……and we do it the right way….because even when you’re

right you can still be wrong……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way