Terror. Chaos. Order.

Last Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder demands more than our sorrow. It demands clarity. Who are these terrorists, and how should a free society respond?

We don’t have to look far. The agitators disrupting Boulder City Council meetings are the same ones who defaced Highland City Club with graffiti, vulgar posters, and racial slurs. Their hatred isn’t random; it’s targeted. Their tactics aren’t new; a moral and civic leadership vacuum emboldens them.

Political theorist Patrick Deneen notes that our crisis is not one of too little liberty, but too little order - not mere law and order, but moral order rooted in shared virtue and mutual obligation. He faults not only liberal excess but a hollow conservatism that is more invested in preserving status than cultivating character. Deneen calls for cultural renewal - an honest reckoning transcending our tired political binaries to support the common good.

Joseph Bottum, writing from another angle, describes a cultural elite, largely Progressive in political ideology, as a secular priesthood that co-opts media, academia, and local politics. They speak in the name of justice but exercise power without accountability. A Progressive city council that cannot maintain order in its chambers will not restore it on our streets. When a council member twists herself into knots parsing “antisemitism” from “anti-Zionism,” receiving no pushback from her colleagues, the council licenses chaos in the name of nuance.

Order begins with truth. It grows in communities bound by courage and conscience. We must reject moral relativism and stand with those willing to speak plainly, live nobly, and act bravely to restore it.

We do not fear the mob at Highland, we outlast them by building something stronger. Not a fortress but a sanctuary. Not a slogan but a society.

— Sina.