Here are two names you’ll want to remember: Braxton Shewalter and Kyle Kashuv. You may have heard of Kashuv, maybe not, but Shewalter is new and bright and all things right. Both young men are ardent supporters of the right to bear arms. Of course, the leftist media isn’t paying all too much attention to them. Can’t imagine why. Undaunted, they push on as two voices crying in the wilderness.
Back in the day when some of us took Journalism 101, we were taught something called “equal time.” This is, perhaps, an old-fashioned notion and no longer the custom in these days of advocacy journalism. The point was to give everyone the same amount of airtime or copy in a newspaper. In the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, we heard endlessly from David Hogg. But the voices of dissent in the public square were few and far between.
Nevertheless, Shewalter and Kashuv have something to say. They deserve their time in the spotlight, and we damn well intend to give it to them.
Shewalter Stands Tall
Despite harassment from teachers at Columbia Falls High School in Montana (and you will have to see this to believe it), Shewalter held a pro-Second Amendment rally in Kalispell, Montana this past weekend. A couple hundred of Montana’s faithful showed up, as did the local TV station. We covered it for Liberty Nation, but not much else in the way of media put in an appearance either before, during, or after Mr. Shewalter’s rally. That’s too bad because here is a young man who has something to say. When asked by Liberty Nation to comment on the current gun control controversy, he said, "The Second Amendment is here to Stay, to protect, and defend our freedom."
Braxton and friends
Despite several teachers who openly labeled him on their Facebook pages as “ridiculously disgusting,” “an embarrassment,” and “gross,” Shewalter did not back down. But he did wonder if his grades might tank because of his political views. What a sad state of affairs, that a high-schooler would worry about being penalized for voicing his support of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Try and wrap your brains around that one for a minute.
Using his experience, Shewalter even tapped into his teachers Facebook antics as a teachable moment:
“You guys are the ones out there telling your students every day to not cyber-bully their students, but you guys are the ones out there doing this to students.”
Nice to see that this young man recognizes – and calls out – hypocrisy when he sees it. Perhaps one day he’ll stand for election. One can only hope.
Kashuv For Congress
Kyle Kashuv already has announced his candidacy. As a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, Kashuv has naturally gotten more press than Shewalter. He’s been on CBS News, Vox, The Hill, and so forth. But his appearance on CNN was apparently canceled. In a tweet that has vanished, Breitbart reported Kashuv’s reaction:
“It took 5 weeks for @CNN to invite a student on from the republican side. They finally invited me on and then canceled over a RT of a factual article where someone called them a ‘fake news hypocrite,'” He added, Don’t worry, though, they’re the MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!”
Recently he shot back at former President Barack Obama who wrote a short essay for Time Magazine:
https://twitter.com/KyleKashuv/status/987017890451902464
Braxton at a pro-gun rally
Now Mr. Kashuv could have been a bit more respectful in his comments, but it might be frustration bubbling up from being under siege all the time -- or it could just be his age – Kashuv is only 16. Today he was scheduled to hold a live Facebook dialogue to “discuss ways to save lives without infringing on 2A and the importance of mental health and not bullying.” That seems rather constructive in this era of name-calling and political harassment.
Shewalter and Kashuv are growing up in an age when only one half of any story has merit in the national media. It is a time in our nation’s political discourse where people on one side of an issue wield their power to silence the other. Perhaps we should pull out all the stops and call on the ever-lovin’ Washington Post to have the last word. After all, it’s their slogan that reminds us:
Democracy Dies in Darkness.
