Sigh. Here goes. A year ago today, my life changed. As many of you know, I am an outspoken conservative Catholic professor at a State University (views are my own and do not represent those of my University). Charlie’s murder on a college campus should have been a watershed moment for Universities across this country and across the world. Charlie died doing exactly what we professors have failed — or worse, purposely neglected — to do. He demonstrated what civil dialogue should look like. As His Excellency @BishopBarron so eloquently expressed it here — Charlie died with a microphone in his hand, not a weapon but an instrument of communication. His brutal murder should have been condemned by every institution of higher education across this county as a systemic failure to safeguard our God given right to free speech. Instead, a year on — and in spite of my best efforts, these institutions remain silent, including my own. Instead, I open social media today to students anonymously gloating and jeering and laughing about Charlie’s death. Instead, I wake up to an America whose institutions have failed to uphold the values for which they were established. I’ve come to a conclusion. Rather than hoping these institutions will correct themselves and our society will steer herself back to civility where the sort of dialogue Charlie championed can occur, we need to do it ourselves. In the end, that is what Charlie was doing. His approach was to model civil dialogue and the peaceful dissemination of ideas rather than to inflict his will upon these institutions from the top down. In fact, this is the model that the early Church used in order to spread the Gospel. We each need to wear through the soles of our own sandals in order to wear our way into the souls of others. This has become my life’s mission. Over the last year I have had hundreds of conversations with people from across the political spectrum and of all faith backgrounds. I have had extensive meetings with colleagues on the opposite side of the political spectrum as well as frequent meetings with administration — including an upcoming discussion with one of our regents as part of a continued dialogue — given speeches and talks about civil dialogue and liberty, and I have had the pleasure of speaking at length with @TomTiffanyWI, @derrickvanorden, and @MikeAlfonsoWI about just these issues (thank you, gentlemen). Most recently, and possibly most importantly, I have spent hundreds of hours engaging in interfaith discussions — particularly with members of the @Ch_JesusChrist. I have been blessed with a gift of clarity. That is, I have been given the following certainty — if we are going to save Western civilization, the followers of Christ must come together to push back against the rising tide of Marxism and radical Islamism which breeds the type of resentment and violence that ultimately took Charlie from us. The hour is late. We must set aside our doctrinal differences (which are non-negligible, I will grant) and work together to uphold the following declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" These words are not just platitudes. These words are TRUTHS. These are immortal truths that Charlie understood well and, ultimately, died for. So, I leave you with this: Brothers and sisters, I implore you, set aside your differences. Unite around the eternal truths that make our civilization great. Raise up your voice. Praise God. Pick up the mic.