When Veterans Snap: Examining Recent Tragedies and Personal Growth

The beautiful innocence of childhood provides a stark contrast to the troubling headlines that dominate our news cycle. This morning's reflections begin with a heartwarming story about a weekend park adventure with my grandson, who surprised me by conquering the big slide he'd always feared. His sweet, uninhibited approach to making friends on the playground—"Hey, you want to play with me?"—serves as a powerful reminder of humanity's natural desire for connection before life's complications set in.

Against this backdrop of joy comes the sobering reality of two mass shootings perpetrated by Iraq war veterans. The Michigan church attack and North Carolina restaurant shooting share disturbing similarities that point to potential failures in supporting those who've served our country. The North Carolina case particularly stands out with the shooter's history of filing conspiracy-laden lawsuits, raising questions about mental health resources available to veterans after combat. These tragedies demand we examine how we're caring for those who've sacrificed so much.

Finding confidence in our authentic selves emerges as another powerful theme as we discuss Jasmine Mitchell from The Great British Bake Off, who proudly represents the alopecia community. Her decision to forego wigs resonates deeply with my own journey toward embracing baldness. After years of alternating between wigs and going without, I've finally recognized that true freedom comes from accepting ourselves as we are—something my husband has been telling me for years. On this National Coffee Day, perhaps we can all reflect on how we take life like many take their coffee: in its purest form, without unnecessary additions masking its true essence. What parts of yourself have you learned to embrace rather than hide?

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Weekend with Grandson
• 1:44 Missing Father Mike's Messages
• 2:08 Church Shooting in Michigan
• 4:44 Southport Restaurant Mass Shooting
• 10:04 Bald Representation on Bake Off
• 14:22 Coffee Preferences for National Coffee Day

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hello, good morning. Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. We did, or at least I did. I shouldn't maybe shouldn't speak for the gent. We had the Grand Cam on Saturday. Oh my gosh, y'all, he was so sweet. He's getting so big. I took him to the park because it was a beautiful day. And we have a nice park where we lived right down the road from us. And uh, oh my gosh, y'all, he got out of the car and went straight in there, went up to the big slide, and he has not been on the big slide. He would never go down the big slide. He was too scared. He didn't even he just went up it. He just climbed up that ladder and went down the big slide. I'm like, what in the world? How did this happen? And then, oh my gosh, the sweetest thing. He would go up to kids at the playground. Hey, you want to play with me? Hey, you want to play with me? It was so sweet and so innocent. Oh, it just melted me. Oh. Okay, I'm sorry. We need to move on. Uh oh, I got to find I drove to work today without Father Mike. I have grown so used to him talking to me and giving me the good message on my way into work. But again, I have not been able to find my place. I need to do that today. I'm going to find my place where I would left off. I was like at 260-something days in. And so instead, I had to I listened to Prince tell me about all I wanted, you know, was my kiss, and then Janet Joplin trying to give me a little piece of her heart. So I listened to music on the way in. Alright, we need to move on. I have three stories for you. Well, really two. The third one is not really that much of a story, but we're gonna talk about it anyway. Uh the thing is though, uh, so this church fire, I don't know much about I have did not watch the news hardly at all this weekend. Uh there apparently there was a church in Michigan, I guess, where a guy drove his truck into it and then shot up a bunch of people and then set it on fire. And he apparently is uh an American, but uh some kind of uh veteran. Let me go see if I can find the front page news on the New York Post and see. Uh oh, come on, go to top stories. Okay, I'm sorry, latest stories. I'm sure it's gonna be here's this yeah, so the deranged man, nope, this is a different story. I see. I have two stories here. Both of them concerned death and um veterans. Is that the one? War veteran Thomas or yeah, okay, here's the first one. The deranged madman who killed at least four people and wounded eight others at a Michigan Latter-day Saints Church is a 40-year-old Iraq war veteran who served in the U.S. Marines. The post can confirm. Goodness he goodness. Thomas Jacob Sanford rammed his Chevy Silverado truck into the building before opening fire on the worshippers at a Sunday service at the Church of Jesus Christ of life. They don't, I don't think they give us a reason why. You know, of course, we always want a reason why these people do these things. But if is any kind of reason that they give us going to be okay? No, of course not. He also set the church ablaze, causing the entire structure to burn down. Authorities fear they may so how did he do that? He had enough time to shoot people and set the church on fire. He was killed minutes after the first 911 call came in. Um God, this is just terrible. Cops said they were hundreds of worshipers inside. They still think there may be people that were killed in the fire, too. Oh my god, this is just terrible. And then this other, excuse me, the other story is another war veteran. This one is really strange. I mean, not that that other one wasn't, but let's see if I can find it. Is this uh okay? Here we go. This is it. So Southport mass shooting suspect identified as Nigel Edge after targeted and highly premeditated deadly attack on a crowded North Carolina restaurant. So this guy, this madman who targeted a crowd, uh crowded dockside restaurant in a highly premeditated mass shooting in North Carolina, is a Purple Heart recipient and heavily decorated Marine who served in Iraq before changing his name and filling a slew of conspiracy laden lawsuits according to authorities and what is happening with our veterans? Y'all, what is happening? Nigel Edge, who changed his name from Sean De Okay, DeBavoy, DeBavoys, De Bavoise, in 2023, was arrested, so they got him alive, was arrested Saturday night for launching his deadly assault on the American Fish Company restaurant in Southport Yacht Basin, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, when he suddenly sprayed bullets into the crowd and unsuspecting diners. Oh dear, I gotta check on Lily. Three people were killed, eight were injured. Uh one of the wounded victims is still clinging to life. Goodness gracious. Edge, who is 39 years old, was armed with a short-barreled AR rifle equipped with a suppressor, with a folded stock and scope court document church. Oh, there's a movie with Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson. I can't think of the name of it. I think it's called Conspiracy Theory. Uh so of course my mind with this story goes all over the place with conspiracy, especially with Iraq war veterans. You know, the what was the MK Ultra experimentation back in the day, the 70s, late 60s, something like that. You know, I'm wondering if this I hate I'm I'm afraid to even say it out loud. I'm afraid to even say it out loud. Some of these left-leaning liberals and they're with their gun control. I'm wondering if there's some kind of something behind this with uh our own people brainwashing people to go out and do this, some kind of mind games. Oh my gosh, okay. The suspect described as a lone wolf by authorities faces three counts of first degree murder, five counts of attempted first degree murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The motive has yet to be determined, police said. Well, the the motive was to kill people, but records show Edge has been behind several bizarre lawsuits filed in North Carolina this year, including one accusing a Southport church of trying to kill him. See, something is up with this. Something is not right. The suit this I want you to go read the story. It's on the New York Post. I do not have it out on my X file. The suit filed in May claimed I don't want to read all the suit. Oh, wait, let's read it. The suit filed, I wanted to get to his all his decorations that he got when he was in the war. The suit filed in May claimed the Generations Church was behind a civil conspiracy masterminded by the LGBTQ community and white supremacist pedophiles to kill Edge because he's a straight man. In January, Edge filed a similar see, I'm thinking somebody is getting to him. Someone in January, Edge filed a similar lawsuit against the Brunswick Medical Center, accusing it of being part of a conspiracy launched by LGBT LGBTQ white supremacists, who were allegedly out to get him because he survived their attack in Iraq. I want to move on. He received a number of prestigious awards during his service, including a Purple Heart. He was also awarded the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Iraq Campaign Medal, and two bronze stars, humanitarian service medal, armed forces uh uh expeditionary medal. Uh I you know, some people in the some people say you can get medals for nothing, but but a purple heart, that's pretty good. So, oh, and get this. This is another weird thing about him. He was previously seen on the red carpet accompanying American Idol star Kelly Pickler to the Country Music Awards in 2012. What in the world? What is going on with these people? I don't somebody tell me. Um, alright. I mean, I'm afraid this just popped in my head and I'm afraid to even say it out loud. But I know it's a movie, The Conspiracy Theory with Julie. I know I've already talked about it, but I, you know, I'm wondering if there's just something else going on behind this. My conspiracy brain wants to go there. Alright, the last story I have to you is has nothing to do with any of this, and it is about bake-off's jasmine. Oh, come on, hurry up and open up. Sorry, it's taking forever this article to open. Open, open, open. Anyway, okay. Jasmine Mitchell, and she's on The Great British Bake Off, a show that I do not watch. But the reason I picked this story is because she has alopecia and she's bald, completely bald like me. And now she's uh getting some uh fame for it. After Jasmine Mitchell, one of the stars from this season's Great British Bake Off, opened up about the shock of losing her hair at the age of 12 and how she decided to forego wearing wigs as she got older. Fans have flooded her social media with supportive comments. Many of the alopecia community have also called the 23-year-old medical student an inspiration and thanked her for sharing her story, saying how important representation on screen is. Now I'm not famous like her, I'm not on screen, but I probably should get more involved with the alopecia foundation and all that. After a couple of episodes, Jasmine decided to speak about her alopecia during the much-lauded bread week where she was seen making some celebratory bread with an intricate plated design as part of the Showstopper challenge. So, you know, commenting on one of her Instagram posts afterwards, one fan also has alopecia wrote, Love seeing you tell so much. They're not there's not enough beautiful bald alopecians on screen. Thanks for being an inspiration, not only in cooking, but in alopecia community as well. In response, Jasmine replied, It's my pleasure. I see, there's a lot of women that have hair issues. Now, whether they're completely bald or not, so I like I said before, I have been in wig groups where people, I mean, some women wear their wigs to bed. Some people wear their wigs to go work out. Some people won't let their husbands see them without their wigs. And they're just so frightened. And I I wish, I wish more women were confident with themselves to not put so much on their hair. Y'all, it's just hair. Uh I I've been I prefer to go without wigs. The only reason I buy wigs is because I think they're fun and I'll wear them, but I don't really like them anymore. I just and not that I like them when I wore them. When I wore them, they were kind of cute for you know an hour or so, and then I got bored with it, and they're not really uncomfortable anymore. They're not like the old-fashioned wigs that used to be around. They're they they make them quite comfortable, but they're expensive. I say you I don't wear human hair wigs because that that that that freaks me out. The human hair wigs are really expensive. I'm talking thousands of dollars, but the other synthetic wigs or the heat-friendly wigs, they're you know, they're a couple hundred dollars, okay? You can get some of them cheaper, depending. Depending on the cap construction, I mean, there's a whole big whole thing with wigs. You would not believe it. Um, a lot of knowledge you have to learn before you buy one. Um, but I don't know. I don't even know why I got on this tangent. I in fact, I'm not wearing a wig today. I feel much more comfortable without my wig. And I told my husband the other day, you know, I've been trying on my whole journey with the wig and with the wigs and everything. I told him, I said, I just wish somebody would tell me, whether it's my husband or friends or family, other family members, I just want them, somebody to say, I think you're prettier without the wig. I think you look better without the wig. So, and he said, I've been telling you that for three years now, that I like you better without the wigs. So I'm not wearing wigs anymore. I still have them. I'm trying to get I don't know if I'm debating if I want to donate them or try to sell them or just keep them. I don't know. Because I have fun with them sometimes. They're sometimes I do like to wear them just for fun. But I'm like, why? Why am I wearing this wig? It's stupid. Okay, I don't know why I got off in that tangent. I'm sorry, y'all. Maybe you can figure it out for me. Okay, I guess we need to do the question of the day. Oh my gosh, y'all, it's a national coffee day. Happy National Coffee Day. I know I've asked you this a gazillion times before, I am sure. How do you take your coffee? If you drink coffee, how do you take your coffee? Uh black for me. I have, but through my whole journey of being alive on this earth, I have taken my coffee several different ways. Cream, cream and sugar, black, but right now I'm back to just having it black, unless I get it from Starbucks, then it's a cold coffee. And let me see if I can go to my app and I'm gonna tell you what I order. I'm gonna you're gonna be appalled because it usually people are usually appalled when I tell them what I order. You ready for this? Alright, let's see if the previous, let's see, let's see. I want to here we go. You ready? Okay, I'd get I get the iced brown sugar oatmeal shaken espresso, and I get four shots of espresso. I get four pumps of the brown sugar, and I get it with light ice. So that's what I get. And I get it the large size, the venti. The very the largest size they serve it in. Alright, yeah, no wonder I'm hyped up this morning. Okay, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Bye.