September is a mundane month for me. I’m settled into my routines and waiting for the holiday season to arrive. This September though, has been strange. From D4vd’s Tesla findings to a government shutdown, here are just a few unusual things from the month.
While this event happened in late Aug., the North Carolina commuter train stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has sparked hot debates over violent crime and race. According to the Associated Press, President Donald Trump has used this incident to strengthen his idea that urban environments have more crime. Additionally, conservative activists, including Charlie Kirk, have said that there would’ve been more media coverage if it were a black person that were stabbed. The rhetoric of race influencing crime only hurts our country in the end of the day. According to criminology professor Charis Kubin from the University of California, Irvine, it’s “extremely uncommon” for violent offenders and victims to be different races. The train incident was terrible, but the racist rhetoric that has surrounded it has only made Americans more divided.
The next incident is the body found in singer D4vd’s car. According to ABC correspondent Alex Stone and reporter Meredith Deliso on ABC News, 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found on Sept. 8 in a Tesla registered to D4vd. D4vd hasn’t publicly commented on the situation, but speculation online has been circulating. Additionally, the rest of his “Withered” tour has been canceled. While this doesn’t clarify if he committed any crimes or not, it has raised suspicion. There isn’t much clarity on how Celeste ended up in the car, and her cause of death still hasn’t been confirmed. For me, this was definitely an unexpected finding. D4vd has never given me sinister vibes, but ever since the body was found and theories have come out, I can’t help but find the entire situation not only weird, but extremely disturbing.
Moving to Sept. 10, when Charlie Kirk was shot. American politics have been tense, to say the least, but the assassination of Kirk seemed to come out of nowhere and sent shockwaves throughout the country. Kirk was killed by a single gunshot to the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University. Regardless of political affiliation, this act of political violence was a warning sign for the United States, and Kirk’s shooting engrossed the news for most of the month, covering up the other tragedies going on in the country. The same day as Kirk’s assassination, a school shooting in Denver injured two, but it received significantly less coverage. Kirk’s assassination was a rude awakening for our country’s lack of tolerance in politics, and the way that it covered up other situations going on in the country was bizarre.
The most recent event is the government shutdown that went into effect at midnight on Sept. 30. The funding disagreements stem from Democrats in Congress and President Trump regarding Medicaid cuts and health care tax credits, according to reporter Justin Gomez on ABC. While all government shutdowns are concerning, this one is the cherry on top of a crazy September. According to Gomez, up to 4,000,000 federal workers could go without pay, and about 2,000,000 troops, including the members of the National Guard that Trump has deployed to various cities, could be forced to work without pay. Meanwhile, lawmakers will make their same annual salaries regardless of the shutdown. During the shutdown, federal workers with no say in the legislation have their jobs and paychecks threatened. The last government shutdown was in 2018 during Trump’s first presidency, and it lasted 34 days, with some federal workers going into food banks to survive. There are no benefits to a government shutdown, and it’s important to realize who’s being affected by it. According to Elena Shao and Lazaro Gamino from the New York Times, 87% of the Education Agency is being furloughed currently. As a public school, BVN should recognize the difficulties in our community that a national government shutdown could cause. Hopefully, the legislation will be agreed upon soon and the shutdown will end, but it’s definitely a chaotic way to end a chaotic month.
