![\"RCTC](\"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TurningPoint_99_best_optimized_2000-225x300.jpg\")
\nFriday, January 16th.
\nI was waiting for a meeting with my advisor about classes when I was stopped by a familiar sight: Hanging on the wall was \u201cFreedom of Speech\u201d by Norman Rockwell, an image I mainly know from Twitter users sharing their \u2018bold\u2019 takes. As my eyes scanned the document, a sense of dread slowly crept into my brain:
\n\u201cSTAND UP!
\nJoin the Turning Point USA chapter at RCTC.
\nEvery first and third Tuesday, starting January 20th.
\n2pm \u2013 East Hall, Room 237
\nTreats Provided!\u201d
\nTurning Point USA is a conservative organization cofounded by conservative activists Bill Montgomery and Charlie Kirk in 2012 with the goal of advocating for conservative policies in high schools, colleges, and universities. You may know it in recent news for either A) Charlie Kirk\u2019s highly publicized assassination. or B) The All-American Halftime Show, their attempt to protest Bad Bunny\u2019s Superbowl halftime performance.
\nI\u2019m going to get this out of the way: I did not like Charlie Kirk. The way I see it, the man made a career of making the lives of anybody who was a member of the LGBTQ+ Community and or an ethnic minority a living hell.
\nThe poster bore a seal of approval from RCTC\u2019s student life department on the back peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing: Why were they allowed on campus, especially now of all times? And who exactly was involved in this club?
\nThe second question was easy to solve, RCTC has a list of student clubs and who runs them available to the public. The first question, however, would require me to dig a bit deeper.
\nI reached out to a member of student council to discuss this. It\u2019s pretty easy to make a club, all you need are at least five members and a club advisor, and then you can announce the intention to create the club to the student senate. The matter of the club came up during a vote in December, and had some notable differences from usual senate votes; the senate vote was anonymous, which was unusual from what my source told me since they usually vote non-anonymously, and a little bit after the vote had occurred, the dean of student services contacted them and asked them to reconvene and talk about the vote and if they stand by it. The club was officially formed by a narrow margin (4 yes, 3 no). When I reached out to get more information, such as senate minutes for example, I received no comment.
\nI knew I wanted to write an opinion piece about the chapter, so I reached out to the club president, Andrew Jarett, and set up an interview. The club advertises itself as promoting civil discussion \u2013 I wanted to know why they would choose such a controversial organization as their vehicle for this. They accepted my invitation.
\nThe newsroom was packed that day. We were joined by Jarett, members Lydia Gregory, Josiah Satterblom, Caleb Franklin, and club advisor Othelmo da Silva. Seven members of The Echo (including our advisor) were in attendance, too.
\nI will say, the interview went very well. Both sides were very respectful to each other; we didn\u2019t descend into tribal combat. And I will say, the people in the club mostly seem like very nice people. But I still disagree with them about a lot of things politically.
\nAll of the members met at their local church. They were all fans of Charlie Kirk. One of them had even gone to the last event he did before his final one in Utah, and another had gone to the event after that in Minneapolis, where Erika Kirk appeared in Charlie\u2019s stead.
\nJarrett says he had the idea to start the club in September, after Kirk\u2019s assassination.
\n\u201cI was personally a big fan of him. I liked his values, liked the way he debated. I thought it was very civil. I think we need that in our time,\u201d said Jarett.
\nWhen I asked what the club wanted from RCTC\u2019s campus, Lydia Gregory, another member, answered.
\n\u201cCivil discourse for sure, being able to talk with different people from different backgrounds, with different opinions, different political, religious, etc., different ideas. Being able to do so in a calm and uplifting manner, so that nobody, I mean, yes, words can hurt, but being able to talk between two sides of the aisle or two different opinions. Maybe you won\u2019t agree with each other in the end, but you\u2019ll still have seen the other person\u2019s side of the story, seen their opinion, and maybe have something to think about,\u201d she said.
\nI\u00a0 \u00a0 wanted to know what the club thought of Kirk\u2019s statements. Specifically, I referred to statements he\u2019s made about The Civil Rights Act, calling it \u201ca huge mistake\u201d and an \u201canti-white weapon.\u201d
\nJarett\u2019s response to this was as follows: \u201cContext is very important. Personally, I think a lot of the times when people quote him, they don\u2019t show the whole clip, and so they don\u2019t know, like, all he\u2019s saying.\u201d
\nAnd I do agree; it is very important to show the full context. So, I went digging for it and found the clip. It\u2019s from a discussion with conservative activist Jeremy Carl about his book \u201cThe Unprotected Class,\u201d arguing that white people face systemic discrimination. That video will be linked at the bottom of this article1.
\nOne aspect of the interview I wish I had done better was maybe push them a bit harder and talk more so I could hear more of their actual positions.
\nOne topic that we talked about in depth, though, was ICE.
\n\u201cFirst of all, I don\u2019t know if any of us have had any confrontations with ICE directly, but I would say as a whole, I agree with what they\u2019re doing personally\u2026Now, could they be doing it in a better way? Yes, but I think it\u2026always could be improving. So I agree with the idea behind ICE, enforcing the law. And\u2026 immigration enforcement, because\u2026you need to have order\u2026You need to have law\u2026And you can\u2019t have exceptions to that,\u201d Jarett said.
\nThis is a place I wish I would\u2019ve asked about President Trump or the January 6 crew.
\n\u201cI mean, my grandpa\u2019s an immigrant. He did it the legal way\u2026 If you do it legally, I\u2019m all for it. Having different cultures here is an amazing thing. I love being able to go down the street and getting different kinds of food, like, that\u2019s great, but it\u2019s when you do it illegally. You can\u2019t make that exception for one thing and not for another\u2026\u201d said Jarett.
\nFrom there, the topic of Alex Pretti and Ren\u00e9e Nicole Good\u2019s deaths came up.
\n\u201cIn my opinion, still don\u2019t think they should have died, obviously, but I think that in a lot of ways, we should be highlighting more the deaths caused by illegal immigrants, like Laken Riley, people who have died because of people who weren\u2019t supposed to be here legally. So the stuff that\u2019s going on is very much an America First approach, and I personally agree with it, because we live in America, we should be putting American citizens first. We shouldn\u2019t be prioritizing people who, I mean, they are still very much people. They\u2019re very much still human beings, made in the image of God, loved by Him. But like Andrew said, there\u2019s a legal process for a reason. In that legal process, not saying it\u2019s easy, not saying it couldn\u2019t be reformed. And I\u2019ve heard it has been under some reform. One of our pastors at church said it\u2019s way easier to get in the country now legally, that was a few years ago. So there is reform going. I think that\u2019s a really good thing,\u201d said Gregory.
\nSo, did I change my mind? It hurts to write this, because the club members were so friendly, but no. I still don\u2019t like the thought of the club being on campus. These are nice people. That doesn\u2019t mean I have to like their ideas.
\nI do like that we talked peacefully in a room instead of screaming at each other from across an ideological cavern.
\nIs there a middle ground in our future? Time will tell.
\nFor full transparency, if you are interested in hearing the full audio of the interview, email our advisor, Bryan Lund, at bryan.lund@rctc.edu.
\nAs mentioned earlier in the article, context matters, and I do not want to take anything they said in this interview out of context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"