IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 317
“From the Mouths of Babes”
October 10, 2025
One month ago today, we lost a voice of reason, a voice that heralded the importance of American history, the Founding Fathers and their founding documents, all packaged in a man who stood for the best of America and the value of free speech. We lost Charlie Kirk.
In the wake of his death has come a surge of interest that dwarfs any such movement in my lifetime – and I am over 80 years old.
The response to Turning Point USA’s call for new chapters has more than doubled the highest estimates. Interest in both freedom and faith has never been higher among the young people who will guide this nation in the future.
I hope the days where left-leaning professors spout out all manner of socialist and communist garbage will disappear faster than an ice cube on a hot sidewalk. I speak from experience. A graduate student in my 40s, mine was the single voice to question ridiculous positions put forth in liberal arts classes. My classmates – the ages of my children – sat there and soaked up the drivel as gospel.
Well, it’s about time “the real Gospel” is front and center. I was at a writer’s conference at an Indiana college a number of years ago, and there was a heated exchange on the display of the Ten Commandments on public grounds, whether court houses, city offices or school lawns. A particularly caustic individual ,who reminded me of one Bella Abzug, kept shouting down anyone who deemed such displays dovetailed with basic American values.
I let her scream for about ten minutes and then raised my hand. The chairman of the event recognized me. I said I had one question. A bit shocked, she gave me permission.
Rising to my feet, I said, “If you can name one person that any one of those rules has harmed, I will cede your point.” At this, she threw her briefcase to the floor and left the room with the grace of a storm trooper in Star Wars. I never saw her the rest of the day.
Needless to say, the room quieted down and the discussion went in another direction. It’s a funny thing about the leftists. When faced with facts, their “feelings” evaporate just like a melting ice cube. Feelings do not top facts. You can count on that.
Often young parents tell me that their son or daughter had a grounding in common sense and values before they went to college. Then things changed, and their returning student bore no resemblance to the high school graduate of a few years earlier. And what is the root cause of this metamorphosis? The current product of “higher education.”
I have an important question to parents of college students who graduated in the early 2000s. Did you ask to see your student’s books and study guides, syllabi, reading lists, or the list of speakers or convocations? In retrospect, perhaps you should have.
Most of you would not begin to make a major purchase without doing YOUR homework – checking comparison items, prices, warranties, reviews – yet you sign checks or cosign student loan applications without any idea of what the institution will instill in your son or daughter. Collegiate sports fans aside, college should prepare each student for life, armed with facts to face adult life. Given the state of affairs we see today, I think that the look at curricula should start in kindergarten. It’s your responsibility to oversee your child’s education. Demand to see the materials they use and the library books available.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, it’s high time parents reconsider college. Unless progeny aspires to nursing, medicine, engineering, or a vocation specifically requiring a college degree, maybe a parent needs to look at the trades or jobs where upward mobility comes with experience and hands-on training instead of indoctrination. That’s what it is in many cases, and America will be the loser for it.
Might I suggest online classes at Hillsdale College That wonderful place in Michigan holds a special place in my heart, and it isn’t lost on me that Charlie Kirk took dozens of classes from Hillsdale. Moreover he read the classics and could quote the great writers and scores of men and women who span history. There are a number of lists of Great Books out there. Check them out.
My hope is that God’s plan for Charlie may have been for him to light the fire of faith and American exceptionalism in a generation yearning for true meaning in life. In his short 31 years, he showed that it isn’t the years in one’s life that counts, it is the life in the years. The roots are now planted for a religious and patriotic revival in America. God bless Charlie. Follow his example, one day at a time. Read. Learn.
We would all be better off if we turned off the television and turned on the reading lamp. There is no better use for one’s time than expanding the mind, one book at a time. College isn’t for everyone. Taking a look at the campus problems from coast to coast, it isn’t hard to recognize a lack of background in world history and the American experience. The saddest part for me is the utter waste time and brainpower.
In a world where laptops (Yes, I am using one now!), iPads, and cell phones can put literally any information at your fingertips, something is sorely lacking – the inspiring moments when you are not only reading a book but you are IN the book. You lose track of time. You experience people and places heretofore undiscovered. The more you read, the wider your vocabulary. I always have a dictionary handy. My boys know that I read one (and the encyclopedia) for fun. They laughed at me in their teens. I wonder if they still do….
I know all my reading certainly added to my tools as a writer. Take it from an old girl, even YOU can learn new tricks. Go for it. Grab a book with substance. Check out Hillsdale. Expand your horizon. Read. Like Charlie, you will be better off for it.
Would that the resurgence of real education would come “from the mouths of babes.”
Think about it.