Dennis Prager Reflects on Charlie Kirk and 9/11

Dennis, how excited are you that your first public appearance on October 15th is taking place real soon in Miami? Well, it'll be a very big deal for me personally. I was hoping that that day would come. There was no guarantee whatever that it would ever come. They gave me a very small chance of public speaking and breathing without a ventilator. I am doing both right now, and on some days my voice is quite stronger than it is right now. So it's great for me. It's great for PragerU, and it'll be great for the audience. Well, people are flying in from all over the country, possibly from around the world, to come see you and hear from you. I was thinking this is not an easy trip for you to get into the vehicle and into a public space. Are you nervous? Oh, no, I'm not nervous. I believe that there is so much sympathy for my condition that even if it went awry, people would not feel, oh, we didn't get our money's worth. They understand anything is possible with the human body. So I'm not nervous, and I have every reason to assume it'll work out. I do these podcasts with no air, a supplement, and on my own, and no vocal supplement. So I don't see why it won't work. Well, I just have to say that you're just such an example of courage. So many people in your condition would be afraid to leave or take the medical risk of getting into a vehicle, into a space with, you know, many people who are getting on planes and traveling. And even when I ask you this question, whether you're nervous, it doesn't even dawn on you whether you should be nervous for any sort of medical mishap. And so I just, you're truly probably one of the most courageous people I've ever met, ever. It's a very interesting question. What constitutes courage? I think of others, you know, people who they were courageous. What I think of myself is resilient. That I am. Or as Dr. Stephen Marmer put it, Dennis has great shock absorbers. That's true, and I work on it. I said from the beginning, I had three choices. Death, depression, or work it through, persevere through it. So there's no choice. I don't want to be either dead or depressed. I love life as much as ever, and I want to live as full of life as I can, given my circumstances. That's what it comes down to. Well, I just want to remind anybody who's listening, if they want to be with us in Miami on October 15th, they can go to the PragerU website and find out about this very special event that we are all looking forward to. And meanwhile, Dennis, you know, this has been a tough week. We remember a year since the murder of Charlie Kirk, and I'd love to get some of your thoughts on our dear Charlie. You know, it is often said that nobody is really indispensable, but that's not true. There are some indispensable people. Charlie is an example of that. He was just remarkable. I watch his appearances at universities now a year after he was assassinated, and I marvel at his ability to respond, his breadth of knowledge, his decency, his eloquence. There were none like him, and I consider myself a really good speaker. There was nobody like Charlie to handle young people the way he did. We miss him terribly. I don't know who can replace him, if anybody. Clearly there has to be some successor or successors. That's one big thought I have. I miss him terribly, as another one on a personal level. You know, Charlie visited me in my hospitals on a regular basis. He dedicated his last book to me. You know, I'm tempted to write a piece for the Wall Street Journal, and the title would be, Charlie Kirk Dedicated His Last Book to a Well-Known Zionist. I think that would really arouse the antagonists. A third thing I want to say, it is revealed that certain of his text messages were annoyance with Israel. The purpose of text messages for most people is to vent to their friends. I know that they'll all get public, so I don't do that, but most people do. But I certainly vent privately to my wife, to my friends, and if everything any of us said in annoyance privately, or let out every one of us, would look bad. That's the nature of it. That's the point of venting, that you can say anything you want. It's pure emotion, and that's fine. You don't take that as policy. Number four, it is said that his donors pressured him to support Israel. Maybe that's true, maybe that isn't true, but if it is true, why is that a sin? The whole point of a donor is to give to the person or foundation that the donor believes supports his cause. If the NRA all of a sudden got squishy on gun control, then a lot of its donors would pressure them to revert to their original position. That's what donors do. They give to the group that agrees with them. That's their only position. What's wrong with that? Why is that nefarious, or even demonic? Number five, I really believed, I was really in my mind, I haven't said this publicly yet, to speak to Charlie about Israel, and speak to him about his valid and not valid annoyances with Israel, but to remind him of the bigger picture of a country, the only one on earth targeted for complete eradication by all the nations surrounding it. And we should never forget that perspective, and I think it would have prevailed. You know, Dennis, there are moments in history that I think change the way we look at life forever. One of them is October 7th, one of them is 9-11, which we'll probably speak about, and I also believe that one of them was the murder of Charlie Kirk. I think that we were all forced to think about loyalty versus morality, virtues, what does doing things in the name of God mean? There's just a new conversation that is now emerging since the murder of Charlie Kirk around these very big ideas, and really at the core of them are the topics of virtues. Yeah, it's triggered a lot of discussion. Unfortunately, Marissa, a lot of it has been dark. The attacks on his widow are unprecedented, at least in my lifetime. This poor young woman who loved their husband and whom he adored, I know that from the way he spoke to her, to me, I mean about her to me, and then her husband is murdered, leaving her with little children, and then attacked with the clear implication that she was involved at least in the cover-up and her organization, quite possibly in his assassination, and of course, Israel behind it, the Candace Owens thesis, and my heart breaks for her when she visited me. I saw one of the most moving sights of my life when she hugged my wife, Sue. It might have been the longest hug of two people I ever saw, each with their own pain. Sue over what has happened to her husband and Erica to hers, and what can one say? To choose a widow to attack and have millions of people ostensibly listening to it, it's a bad sign of our times. There's a lot of darkness we're living through, Marissa. They're not just talking about Charlie's virtues. I wish they were. You know, I talked about these moments in history that shed light within darkness. I think for many of us, 9-11 is one of those moments. Some of the listeners were not even born on 9-11. I was a teacher on 9-11. I remember going into the classroom and not knowing how to face my students. Your son Aaron Prager told me he was eight years old, and he remembers waking up in the morning, walking around your house, walking into your room, and he saw you watching the screen while the Twin Towers were attacked and tumbling down. For those who have children who are not born yet and don't know that much about 9-11 and now spending time on the internet hearing conspiracy theories that 9-11 was caused by all kinds of, I don't know, Israelis or Americans or the West itself, how do you think we should think about 9-11 at this moment in our history? As what it was, Islamists who hate America wanted to start bringing us down, and it is a great virtue to kill as many innocent Americans for these people as it is to kill as many innocent Israelis for these people. It's a bigger victory than killing members of the armed forces. They just want to inflict pain. They were all middle class. These were not poor, downtrodden Muslims, and they hated the country, and thanks to box cutters, they were able to do the damage that they did. When I see these videos that it was really not the airplanes, bombs within the tower set off by presumably the CIA or some other American agency, I'm amazed that people could believe that. They were set for exactly that moment, but they were in codes with the Muslim killers. How many young Americans are even taught that it was Muslims who did it, right? Can you imagine if so-called Zionists had done it? Would they hide that fact? That's all they would keep speaking about, but kids don't even know who did it, and I don't remember. Well, Zionists would never do that. And haven't done that. All the religious terror, 99% is coming from the Muslim world. 60,000 Christians have been slaughtered in West Africa in the last 10 or 20 years. You don't hear about it because it was all done by Muslims. There's a great saying, no Jews, no news. It's so true, and again back to 9-11, it's just not taught for what it is. So we try to look for other theories as to who did it. We know who did it. We know why they did it. Okay, so Dennis, I have some questions here from Prager United members from all over the world. First question comes in from Martin, 55 year old from Portland. I know that Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the world. What does that mean? Well, it actually means the birthday of mankind, but the better point is that Rosh Hashanah, while it is a Jewish holiday, is a Jewish holiday that is a universal holiday. It's the holiday on which the world and certainly mankind was created, and it is the day that all creatures will be judged. Judaism is parochial in that you have to undergo certain rituals to become a Jew, but it is utterly universal in its outlook. It's a message to the world. Observe God's laws, basic laws, or sometimes called the seven laws of the children of Noah. I like to use the Ten Commandments, and as I've always said, if everybody lived by the Ten Commandments, that would end all armies, all navies, all air forces, and it would end all police and all jails. That's the solution, the Ten Commandments, and that is what the great... I love these holidays. Rosh Hashanah inaugurates the 10 days of self-introspection. What type of person am I? What type of person should I be? And the great innovation of Judaism is that the God of justice, and that is God, judges people by their behavior, not by their faith. An idol worshiper, who is a decent human being, goes to heaven sooner than a Jew who is not decent. Judaism, the Torah, divide the world between the decent and the indecent. To use Viktor Frankl's great terminology, not between Jew and Gentile, not between pagan and monotheist, but between the decent and the indecent. Okay, Dennis, this is one of my favorite questions yet. This is from Douglas from Jacksonville, Florida. Dear Dennis, the Bible describes God feeling love, compassion, anger, jealousy, and regret. My question is, do you think God has a sense of humor? Is he ever amused? Does he ever laugh? That's very funny. Does God have a sense of humor? It seems to be, it would be a bit too subtle for us humans to quite catch. When Moses has his debate with God at the burning bush, Moses does not want to go back to Egypt, does not want to lead the Jews, and gives all these arguments. I don't speak well. The Jews don't know who I am. They don't know what you are. So what name should I give you? Who are you? And then God gives him a very informative answer. I will be what I will be. And I could just imagine scratching his head and thinking, that'll do it. He will be who he will be. Sent me to be your leader to take you out of bondage. I don't quite see how that's going to work. Well, you've oftentimes said that music is a gift from God. So maybe laughter is a gift from God. If I didn't have a sense of humor, I could not have survived the last two years. All right, here's one that came from a 25-year-old in Croatia. I don't know how to pronounce this name, so they'll have to forgive me. Dear Mr. Prager, I share your belief that America is the world's last hope, but I'm concerned about the growing influence of socialist ideas. As someone from the EU who values freedom over social welfare, what advice would you give to someone like me considering moving to the United States? Well, you know, I wrote a book on this. In some ways, my most important book, still the best hope. But people forget the subtitle, Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. It's not America, it's American values. If America abandons its American values, it won't be anything special. So this is my worry, just as it is this Croatian writer. It's a real worry, but you know what? We need people like you. Anybody of any background, any color, can back American values. And the American values I've explained, the American trinity is on every coin. In God we trust, a pluribus unum, and liberty. The only country of those three has its motto. And that's what we stand for. And that's what the left wishes to destroy. And so does the far right. People don't know this, but Hitler was as anti-capitalist as the communists were. They both hated the free market. The only thing that has ever lifted a nation out of poverty. And of course, they both hated the Jews, which is another subject. We have failed to teach American values to young Americans for all of my lifetime. This is the tragedy we are seeing. That New Yorkers could elect a communist Islamist as its mayor. It's a dystopian nightmare, and it's come true. Now this question that came in from Joseph from Croatia. Would you have been more surprised to receive a question like this 10 years ago than today? Do you think that there is a visible deterioration in the United States? Oh, of course there is. And 10 years ago, he would not have written, should I move there? He would have written, how do I get there? Yeah, absolutely. David, a 24-year-old from Connecticut. Does Judaism teach about an afterlife for animals? It's interesting that he should ask that. There's actually a debate in the Talmud. That's all the Talmud is, is essentially debates whether animals have souls or not. There are very powerful arguments on both sides. I'm not sure it's resolved. I know my wife is certain that animals have souls. And she is moving me in that direction. I did not think so. I also don't think it's true in any event for all animals. I'm not sure lizards have souls. But the argument that dogs do, when you watch them interact, it's hard to believe they don't. Well, many of us find it hard to believe that there would be a heaven without our puppies. I hope that Teddy would be there, though I'm not sure how I feel about cats. Speak to Alan. Will do. All right. So we have a question from Randy in Thousand Oaks, California. Who would you say is the most influential person alive today and why? And then the follow-up question, which is even more interesting, why is it important to you to be someone who influences people, Dennis? Well, let me answer the second one first. I'm a unique soul. In high school, I wrote in my diary, I know what my mission in life is. And these are the words I wrote, to influence people to the good. The exact words. That's all I've wanted to do my whole life. And that's pretty much all I've done my whole life. So why is it important? Because I don't think there's anything more important than goodness. My favorite verse in the Bible, as I have often pointed out, is from the Psalms. Those of you who love God must hate evil. If you don't hate evil, you can't love God. Who is the most influential right now? There's no one answer to that question. I'm not sure there was almost at any time. It's early in modern history. One most influential. Not sure we want one most influential. But there are people who have been massive influences. C.S. Lewis is an example of someone like that. Donald Trump is massively influential. There's no question about it. He's not what we'd call a major thinker, but he's certainly a major influencer. To go to the sad side, for those who share my values, three of the most influential people have been sidelined. Myself, Jordan Peterson, and of course, Charlie Kirk, who's frighteningly permanently sidelined. It almost makes you believe that there's a Satan out there working his bad ways. But I'm coming back, as is obvious. It's really important. By the way, talking about myself, if I may, there's a great series put up by Salem, Salem Media, Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. It's free, and they have called the most important of my radio shows to rebroadcast my talks about men and women, and about religion, and about ultimate issues. So I would recommend to everybody, go to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. It's a really great service there. They're performing for the public. Amazing. Well, absolutely looking forward to sharing that. I'm sure many people will listen in if they haven't. And we can't wait to see you in Miami on October 15th. That'll be great. Dennis, thanks for everything you have already done for humanity, and thanks for all that you do. We need your voice more than ever. So God bless you, and keep up the great work on your healing. Thank you so much. Everybody, don't forget to send in your questions for Prager United membership. We love reading them out to Dennis. I know Dennis loves them as well. And thank you for your generosity and support to help make this program flourish.