Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good evening, everyone. It is Thursday, November the 17th, 2022. It is currently 11.51 p.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio, located right here in Abilene, Texas. And I know it's late at night. It's almost early morning. It's almost midnight here in West Texas. So you may be thinking or asking why is he going live at such a late hour or early hour, especially depending on which time zone you're in. Well, I cannot speak for you. I say that all the time because I can't. I can only speak for me. But this is one of those situations where earlier this evening I came across a news article and it just really hit me emotionally. I've had lots of emotions tonight, not all of them about this news story, so I have lots of emotions going on right now, but this news story just really hit me in a in a powerful way, because it deals with a teenager, it deals with the death of that teenager's parents, or parent, I should say, so it deals with a teenager, the death of that teenager's father, let me state it that way, and the funeral. And I can relate to that story, because I was a teenager when my mother died. Now, it wasn't my father, it was my mother died when I was a teenager. And I had to go to the funeral. Now you may say, had to? You mean you got to? Well, I can't say that I got to. I felt like I had to, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. My relationship with my mother was not great. It was complicated to say the least. A lot of bad and horrible things went down. I'm not here to delve into that and to my past or the horrible stories of my upbringing, but I can relate to a teenager whose parent has died and they're at the funeral and maybe things weren't so well, things weren't so great, maybe things weren't so good with that parent. So, right, immediately this has a, there's an emotional connection with me, right? Here's a teenager, their father died. I was a teenager, my mother died. They're at the funeral, I had to be at my mother's funeral. And obviously for this teenager, and for me, there was a lot of emotions. There was a lot of things that you wanted to say. So here's the question. What is the purpose of a funeral? What is the funeral really there for? Is the funeral for the person who passed? Is it for the person who died? Is it for them? Is it a way to show respect to them, honor to them? In other words, the focus of the funeral, is it about them? Is it really about them? What's the purpose of the funeral? If I said sermon, I apologize. What's the purpose of the funeral? I think some people believe the purpose of the funeral is, well, preach a sermon, preach a sermon, preach a sermon. Is the purpose of the funeral a sermon? Some Christians say the purpose of the funeral is evangelization, evangelize. Some people say the purpose of the funeral is a celebration. Yes, we're sad, yeah, but let's celebrate this person's life. Some people say the purpose of the funeral is to honor the person who has died, show them some kind of respect, that whatever you're feeling, you set it aside to show respect. Others would say the purpose of the funeral is not for the person who died, it's not for celebration, it's not for evangelization. It's for the people left behind, the people still alive. It's for them to grieve. It's for them to process the loss. It's for them to move forward. What is the purpose of a funeral? I think that's a very important question. And I think if I was to do a survey, I would get multiple, I would get all kinds of different answers. When I went to my mother's funeral, I don't know what I felt the purpose was, maybe some kind of closure. Maybe it was just something that I knew I had to do because, well, that's what's expected, right? Like, I don't know if I was able to even process exactly what was supposed to happen, what was supposed to transpire there. I know a lot of people walked up and gave me lots of cliches and lots of words, you know, basically. I mean, in some ways I felt like. I was getting, hey, the sun will come up tomorrow. Things are going to be good. All things work together for good. Everything's going to be wonderful. Life will get better. Like I felt like I got a lot of just a lot of cliches and in some ways they did not help. And they made me very, very angry. I'm like, yeah, life's going to be better, but my mom's still going to be dead. What is the purpose of the funeral? Well, the reason I'm asking this question is because a teenager who lost her father gave a eulogy at her father's funeral. And to say that the eulogy was controversial would be an understatement. Of course the eulogy made it to TikTok. Of course the eulogy made it to Twitter. Of course, the eulogy made it to social media. That is the difference maybe between now and in the past where your eulogy would not make it to social media. I don't know who decided to record the eulogy. I don't know if it was the teenager themselves asking someone to record it. I don't know. But it made it to social media. That's a whole other conversation. And her eulogy, let me just describe it. Let me just describe it the way the news story describes it. I'm gonna use their headline, right? I'm gonna use their headline. All right, you ready? Teen's eulogy to racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving father at his funeral goes viral. So the teen is going to give a eulogy to her racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving father at his funeral. Immediately, you know, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, something, this is not going to look or sound wonderful. But again, my question, who is the funeral for? Is it for her father? Is it for her? She's the daughter, right? Is this funeral for her, for her to grieve and for her to process? And maybe she wants to say something to her racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving father. Maybe she wants to say something. Is it right for her to say it? I mean, because it's for her, but then you're like, well, wait a minute, it's also for other people. But they could stand up and say what they want to say. What's really the purpose here? Or if she stands up and she has strong words to say about her racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving father, is she making it about her? But is it about her? Now, of course, on social media, everyone has an opinion on it because, you know, other people's grief and other people's sorrow and other people's pain and other people's funeral, everyone has to comment on it. But at the same time, someone posted it on social media. The story was posted earlier this evening. I think it was around four, maybe 4 p.m. Central Time. I think it was around 4 p.m. Central Time when it was posted. It may have been about 5 p.m. And I've looked at it countless times and just kind of had some conversations with myself about it, trying to process it. Here's the story. A 19-year-old TikTok user Has gone viral after sharing a video of their eulogy To their deceased father now, please note. It seems to be that the the teenagers 19 years of age A tiktok user and they're the ones who shared the video so They're the ones who, now either someone else recorded it, or it sounds like possibly she wanted it to have it recorded. Now we can debate the rights and wrongs of that all day. We can debate that all day. But it appears that she really wanted these words to be heard by more than the people at the funeral, but people everywhere on the internet. So it feels that in some ways, She wanted to use the funeral as an opportunity to make a statement. Is that wrong or is that right? What's the purpose of the funeral? What is? Because I don't think any, there is not an agreed upon purpose of the funeral. Again, some people think it's a celebration. Some people think it's a time for evangelization. Some people think, you know, it's a time to honor the dead. Some people think it's a time for the family, for those left behind to grieve. Everyone has their own, their own view of it. Now, the thing is, is when you have everyone walk into a funeral, you have people who walk in with all kinds of different perceptions of what should and shouldn't happen, what is allowed and what isn't allowed, what will make them comfortable and what will make them very uncomfortable. Personally, I despise funerals, and I've said it so many times. When I die, I will not have one under any circumstance. There will not be a funeral. Just the immediate, immediate family will be able to walk to the graveside as they lower the casket, and then that's it. Nobody's gonna say a word. They can stand there and grieve in their own way, think whatever they wanna think, and then that's it. I don't want any kind of service. And I know some people say, no, you should use it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. I understand people think that that's the way it should work, but I just, you know, People are there to grieve. I don't know if they're there to hear a sermon. I don't know. I just have a different perspective on it, and you can disagree with me. That's okay. But let's go back to this 19-year-old TikTok user. Her father's dead. Now, let's just remember, she's 19 years of age processing the death of her father. Let's just make sure, because it's easy to stand here and judge this. It's easy to stand here and condemn this. but let's stand back and at least appreciate it's her, it's her father, it's his funeral, and she's got to deal with it. Now we may not, one of the things I try to say constantly is I think too many times we're too quick to judge how other people grieve, right? You can never judge how other people grieve. It's not your place. When my father died, I had Christians judge the way I handled it. I had people judge me. Christians, judge me because I didn't handle the death of my father the way they thought I should have. I should have done this. I should have done this. I don't know why it's any of their business what I should do, right? It's my father. It's my father. Don't tell me what I'm supposed to do. I still get very upset and angry about it. I'm still very hurt by it because how dare they tell me what I'm supposed to do and then judge me and condemn me. and use it as an opportunity. My father is dead and I'm being attacked because I didn't handle it the way they thought I should have. That's insane. The way people hand, like people, people are almost like beyond narcissistic. It's almost an evil. It's almost like an evil enters into them and they think they're, they're of such self-importance. They can judge other people's grief. So I don't want to judge her grief. I don't know. I just know that she's the one who made it public. So I think it's fair to comment on. I'm just trying to use the story to process what is the funeral really for? Do we really know? But here's what happened. A 19-year-old TikTok user has gone viral after sharing a video of their eulogy to their deceased father at his funeral, in which the teenager calls her her father from she's standing there giving the eulogy she calls him a racist a misogynist a misogynistic xenophobic trump loving man and she's not saying that in a yay he was racist yay he was misogynistic yay he was xenophobic yay he was trump loving oh no she seems to be saying it in a very negative way the user and then they give her TikTok handle and all of that. I'm not gonna go back through and go through all of that information. But the user is a self-described, they just self-described themselves. So this is the TikToker, the way they described themselves as a black supremacist. And they described themselves on their TikTok bio that way. So this teenager, 19 years of age, who describes himself as a black supremacist, who uses the pronouns they and them, has received widespread backlash after their viral video was reposted to Twitter by controversial conservative account, Libs of TikTok on Tuesday. Now, okay, so you have a conservative website. who obviously wants to expose what they believe is the craziness of liberals. So they take this person's eulogy and then post it out, and of course, everyone then loses their minds. Now, I'm torn here. I'm conflicted here. I'm conflicted. On one hand, it's someone's eulogy. So can we just leave it alone? Like if we're going to attack liberals, if we're going to attack conservatives, Can we leave what they say at their father's funeral, when they're giving the eulogy at their father's funeral? Can we just maybe leave that alone? Is that off limits? Or like, nope, they said it, we're gonna use it. On the other hand, she's the one who posted it on TikTok. At the same time, it's her TikTok account, and it's her father's funeral, and it's her eulogy. But at the same time once you post it out there anyone else can grab it That's the that's the conflicting part. I have about the story like I don't should this conservative site who wants to obviously expose liberals Should they have reposted it? I don't know because because to me someone's grief someone's pain Is not my opportunity to make political points or even philological points See, some people would want to use it and go, see, that's a black supremacist. And they use the they and them pronouns. See, they're so confused and use it to attack the person. I don't want to attack the person. It's a 19-year-old who lost their father. See, I told you there's a lot of conflicting emotions with this story. But see, that's the problem. You posted it on social media. So you open yourself to it, but at the same time, can't you post whatever you want on social media? The story continues. In the video, this TikTok user can be seen on stage delivering their eulogy speech to their father at his funeral. It begins with, Dad, please know that while I'm grateful, and I'm gonna stop right there, because I'm gonna play it for you. I'm gonna play this for you. I wanted to take a considerable amount of time before I played it, just because if people are tuning in live, they can hear this. And I want you to, first of all, and I know this is going to be hard, because what some of you are going to hear this, you see, I think different ears are going to hear this different ways. If you're a parent, you may hear this and be horrified and say, how disrespectful she is to her parents. How disrespectful. That is horrific. That is horrible. If my child was to do that, I would turn over in my grave. Some are going to hear it through the ears of a parent. Some may hear it through the ears of politics, right? Oh, she's one of those brainwashed liberals, you know, or they may, some, so they may see it through the ears of a parent, the ears of politics. Oh, she's one of those brainwashed liberals. Some may hear it through the ears of generation. What do I mean by that? If you're an older generation, she'll be like, these kids today are just so disrespectful and out of control. Some will hear it that way. Some may hear it through the perspective of maybe religion. I guess it's impossible for me not to hear it and hear the words of a teenager who's lost their father, who obviously had a strained and messed up relationship with said father for whatever reason. Now, you could ask yourself lots of questions. Why was she speaking? Who came up with the idea for her to speak? Did she demand that she could speak? And is this just her way of grieving or is this her way of trying to make a statement? Did she decide to use her father's funeral as an opportunity to make a statement about things she believes is cultural, is important for the culture to be faced with? I don't know. I mean, there's lots of questions here. But since it's already, it's all over social media, it's already gone viral. It's all over the news. I've got multiple news articles dealing with it. So this is not like I, you know, I'm finding someone's private eulogy and wanting to, I would only be, I'm only, the reason I'm even discussing this is because it's all over the place. but I'm going to play it. Now, the phone that recorded the eulogy is clearly further back in the room. In other words, she did not record the, she didn't walk up to the platform and place the phone down and record it that way where it's close to her. She, obviously someone else was recording it and it's far away. I amplified the audio and I cranked it all the way up to 100 here. But you are going to have to listen carefully. And what I'll do is I will read the words after as well, or the words that are recorded at least in the news article. Now, this is obviously not the entire eulogy. This is one minute and 13 seconds of it. And this is the minute and 13 seconds that seems to be going viral. right? So that is a little unfortunate. I think a lot of people on social media was asking for the full eulogy so that we could get some kind of context. But this is the part everyone is talking about. So listen carefully. A 19-year-old giving a eulogy. Her father has passed. And somewhere in the eulogy, She uses these words. This is, I think, close to the end, because I think at the end of the video, she walks off. I think, I think she walks away at the end of this. So this may be like the, the grand conclusion of it. I don't know if it's the, how much time she was given. Maybe she knew she was going to be given a short amount of time. There's still lots of questions we have about it, but here we go. But dad, please know that while I'm grateful and highly aware of all that you've given this family, I still don't miss you. When you died, I felt like there was a hole. I missed something, but it wasn't you. It was the idea of what you could become. I missed being able to hope and wish that one day you'd turn a corner and see the world from my perspective. I missed the idea that one day you might help me fight for the things that matter. I missed my fantasy of you. Because when you died, it solidified the fact that you'll never be what you could have been, but only what you are. And what you are is a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving, cis-straight white man. That is all you will ever be to me. And dad, before you tell me to respect the dead, please remember that you disrespected and disregarded the lives and deaths of entire communities of people with your ideology. You told me to never back down, so I won't. You know for a fact that even against you I'm not afraid to share my peace. You are everything I aspire not to be, and I refuse to stand up here and sing the praises of a man who is the paradigm of white supremacy. So I'll take your racist mindset, I'll take your money, and I'll take your advice. And I swear to God I will make this world a better place, not at all because of you. but an exact opposition to you. Thank you. You can hear, you can hear some gasp in the audience. Like what just happened? Um, you can hear some applause at the end, but the people applauding seem to be very close to the one holding the phone. So here's a little bit of what she said, if you could not hear all of that. Dad, please know that while I'm grateful and highly aware of all that you have given this family, I still don't miss you. When you died, I felt there was a hole. I missed something, but it wasn't you. It was the idea of what you could have become. I missed being able to hope and wish that one day you would turn the corner and see the world from my perspective. I miss the idea that one day you might help me fight for the things that matter. I miss my fantasy of you. Because when you died, it solidified the fact that you'll never be what you could have been, but only what you are. and what you are is a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving, cis, straight, white man. That is all you will ever be to me. You are everything I aspire not to be. I swear to... I will make this world a better place, not at all because of you, but in exact opposition to you, and there's more there that she said, but because I think she said, I'll take your money, I will take your advice, or something along those lines as well was added there. Now, many, many, and well, I could go through the rest of the news article, it's relatively long, giving all the different perspectives and this. Right now, there are 4,325 comments There's currently 467 people viewing the article and currently six people are typing. Okay, so the article is generating much discussion and much heated debate. How do you process this? You're going to hear it through your own set of ears and perspective. I still want to hear it. At least for me, I still want to hear that, yes, those are some strong words, and yes, those are condemning words, and those are derogatory and slanderous words, and I don't even know how accurate they are. Maybe it's her perception of her father. I don't know if he was a racist. I don't know if he was misogynistic. I don't know if he was xenophobic. He may have loved Trump, for all I know. I don't know. I don't know how accurate any of that is. But I know that's clearly her perception of him. And she's the one who, no matter what she wants to say, I don't miss you. And I only miss the fantasy of you. Like she's almost like, I've got to make a point here. You could say, well, that's horrible. I understand that. And you could say that that's not the place to do so. And I can understand that. But where is the place? When is the time? When is the time to say those words? When is the time to express yourself? When is the time to say what you want to say? I mean, if the funeral is about the family grieving, you say, well, what about the rest of the family? I understand that, but what about her? When does she get to express this to some counselor, to just a TikTok audience? When does she get to express it? I'll just give a, it's not the exact same thing, but I'll just show you that sometimes that you would think, well, that's not the time or the situation. I'll give you an example. I graduate from high school, graduation night. Now, it may not mean anything to you because it's just high school. Who cares about high school graduation? It's really meaningless. I mean, I don't perceive it as anything of great significance, at least in my life. But it was important to me for this reason. My mother, on all the problems and issues we had, She tried to get me to quit high school. She almost became antagonistic towards my wanting to get my degree. She wasn't able to finish high school. It's a long, horrible, tragic story, and it was weird. She almost turned against it, like she didn't want me to accomplish that. And I didn't give in, and I wouldn't quit, and I wouldn't drop out, not because I love school. I hated it, and I've talked about how horrible high school was in my life, but I just felt that I needed to. Well, I wasn't living with my family when she died. I was living with a different family. We won't go through all the messed up story. But I'll never forget that when I walked across that stage and I got that diploma, I walked out of that building as fast as I could. I got in my car. It's at night. It's like a thunderstorm is in the area. Thunder, lightning. I drive to the Buffalo Gap Cemetery. I park, I climb over the fence with my high school diploma. I walk up the hill, and right at the top of the hill, there's a little chapel there. It's got a roof and some stained glass windows. There's no doors. There's no doors. It's just got a bench inside, and it's right across from where my mother's grave is. So I go right up almost to the chapel. I stand there for a moment. I'm trying to gather myself. I'm trying to get my emotions. Then I walk directly to my mother's grave. And I take my high school diploma and I throw it at the headstone and said, there you go. You could not stop me. You did not stop me. I did it. Now you can say, well, that's ridiculous. It was your graduation night. You should have been doing something else. But well, for me, I needed to have that conversation. Now, I don't know, like, like, I don't want to say what her motives were or weren't now. I'm in fact, I'm going to look here really quick. I don't think the article ever truly expresses. Uh, okay. Yeah. I don't think, uh, yeah, I don't think it ever. Yeah, I don't think it ever really gives her perspective. So I don't know. I mean, I haven't looked up her TikTok account to see if she's offered her reasons for it. I don't know if she has. She's probably dealing with the backlash right now. Everyone else has an opinion on it. Everyone in the world has an opinion on it. Like right now, I mean, there's like 500 people looking at the article right now in real time. And there was what, six people already typing their comments. If I looked again, it'd probably be 30. Everyone has their opinions on it. So I can't I don't I I it would be wrong for me to judge her motives. It would be wrong for me to say How dare you? But if if if if if those words express And i'm and i'm stressing if please hear me if those words are stressed if if if if if if those words express pain and bitterness and hurt and anger If there is not forgiveness, if she cannot let it go, that anger and bitterness will eat at her and eat at her and will ultimately be detrimental to her own future and her own life. It will not be a good thing. It will not be a good thing. It will not be a good thing. There has to be some forgiveness, just has to be. If it's not anger and bitterness, it's just an absolute loathing and hating everything her father stood for. Let's say he was truly racist, truly misogynistic, truly xenophobic, truly a Trump loving man or however she phrased it. and she loathes everything that is. And all she wanted to do was sit there and make an ideological statement. That's a little crass, and there I have a little, because if it's coming from deep-rooted pain and anger, and she's the daughter, and it's her father's funeral, I will defend her right to express that pain, even though it makes everyone else uncomfortable. Put it this way, when my father died and my mother died, no one was gonna give me an opportunity to speak, I guarantee you that. No one, no one. Supposedly, supposedly, I cannot verify this, but I was told that there were, at my father's funeral, there were people strategically placed to watch me to ensure that I wasn't going to do anything. that like there were like almost like security, they had men ready to go to stop me from doing anything. I cannot verify that, it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life, but supposedly. And there was great concern because me, my brother, we did not sit, we did not go, like they had a tent, when we got to the gravesite, there was like a tent. And there was supposedly the place for the family to sit, and me and my brother did not even walk – me and my brother didn't really speak to each other either, but we were standing back, and we didn't go sit anywhere where there were seats. We stood way back because we didn't want to be really even a part of it. And then the man who spoke about my father was obviously speaking about some man I've never met because I don't know – clearly they buried the wrong man because those words had nothing to do with my father. But OK, all right, that's a whole different story. But so clearly I wouldn't have been allowed. So I wasn't able to express any of my anger, any of my grief. And again, I'm not saying that that's always the right place. It really depends on what you view the funeral is for. What is the funeral for? What is it for? Who is it for? I'll just end with this. Number one. Don't judge how other people grieve. Don't judge how other people process grief. Don't tell them how to grieve. Let them grieve in their own way, in their own time. Oh, yes, if it becomes self-destructive or it becomes detrimental to one's well-being, you may have to step in. But you gotta give people some time to process it. You gotta give people, and you, I don't care what you think, you're not the expert. I don't care what you think. I don't care how many degrees you may have. You can't speak for someone else when it comes to grieving. You don't know their story, and even if you think you know their story, you don't feel their story because you're not them. Let them grieve. Let them feel. Let them hurt. Don't judge it. We can't do that. No one benefits from that. So number one, don't judge how other people grieve. Number two, I think it's important. When you die or before you die, let people know what your perspective of the funeral is. Do you want to be remembered? I mean, I think my daughter's already given us instructions on how her funeral should work. I think we have to play Broadway musical tunes and we have to laugh. And I think there has to be a dance routine. And then everyone has to say wonderful things about her. And there's gonna be like pictures of her and like a slideshow. It's gonna be a big presentation. It's all going to be about her, right? She wants to be the center of it, right? Now, maybe a little bit of her being a little bit of exaggerating, that's very much her personality. Some people want it that way. Personally, I would be like, it's not about me, I'm dead, I'm gone. If I believe, and if Christianity is true, and I believe Christianity is true, I'm in heaven. I'm in the presence of my savior, my creator. I don't know if I'm even worried or concerned about what's happening at my funeral at that moment. I don't even know how I would process it in that particular, in that position. So it's for you. It's for those left behind. I don't want people saying things that are not true about me, right? I don't want people to stand there and say, he was a godly man, because I'm a sinner. I don't want people to say that I was a great father, because I don't think I was. I don't want people to say I was a great anything. I think I've never been really great at much. I, you know, and the things I was great at probably were not that significant. I, you know, all the time, life I spent in the club, I would say I was a great dancer. Okay, great. That's wonderful. He said, but how about, how about, do you want to be called a great preacher? I was just a sinner trying to figure out the Bible. That's all I was. How about a great podcaster? I was just a sinner in front of a microphone trying to live out my Christian life in a way in front of a microphone with all of my failures and my ups and my downs and my sins. And I hope, I hope somehow in everything I did and said, I told the story of a sinner trying to figure out the Christianity. I don't want to be something that I'm not because I don't know. But if some people want to just remember the good things, who am I? Again, who am I to say that that's wrong? Because maybe that's their way of grieving. But I think it's good for you. I think it's good for us, you know, in a roundabout way. I think I'm going to change, number two. I think, number one, is we don't judge people's grieving. I think, number two, what we really do, we need to release people. before we die. And when I say release them, say, you say whatever you need to say at my funeral, whether it's negative, whether it's positive. You can totally destroy me and rip me into shreds and tell everyone the piece of garbage that I am. And if you need a list of sins that you're not aware of, I'll give them to you. I want people to be released so that they can do what they need to do so that they can move forward because I'm dead. I think that's important. Oh, I could probably give some more pointers, but do we really care at this point? Probably not. It's 39 minutes into this. You probably don't even care anymore. Nineteen-year-old gives a eulogy at her father's funeral. She tells everyone her dad was a racist, was misogynistic, was a xenophobic, was a Trump lover, a cis, straight, white man, that he never became what she hoped he would be. He never came around to her perspective. I mean, there is a little bit of definitely self-centeredness in her words, but OK. Again, who am I to judge? Because I don't understand everything that happened. And she clearly was bothered by it and upset by it and felt that this was the time to express it. What is the purpose of a funeral? You can contact me at newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com, And I'll end the show by playing the 1 minute and 13 seconds of her eulogy one more time. But dad, please know that while I am grateful and highly aware of all that you give in this family, I still don't miss you. When you died, I felt like there was a hole. I missed something, but it wasn't you. It was the idea of what you could become. I miss being able to hope and wish that one day you'd turn a corner and see the world from my perspective. I miss the idea that one day you might help me fight for the things that matter. I missed my fantasy of you. Because when you died, it solidified the fact that you'll never be what you could have been, but only what you are. And what you are is a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving, cis-straight, white man. That is all you will ever be to me. And Dad, before you tell me to respect the dead, please remember that you disrespected and disregarded the lives and deaths of entire communities of people with your ideology. You told me to never back down, so I won't. You know for a fact that even against you I'm not afraid to share my peace. You are everything I aspire not to be, and I refuse to stand up here and sing the praises of a man who is the paradigm of white supremacy. So I'll take your racist mindset, I'll take your money, and I'll take your advice. And I swear to God I will make this world a better place, not at all because of you, but in exact opposition to you.