One day, as he sat in the private jet loaned by George Soros or George Clooney to fly him around, young David Hogg fell asleep. And had a dream. Or perhaps you’d dub it a nightmare.

Hogg was exhausted from all the media appearances. He’d binged a bit on nachos. At an age when young men naturally yo-yo between megalomaniac daydreams and soul-crushing anxiety, Hogg had had the worst of luck.

The Universe had reached down to accommodate him. As if it were his Jeeves, it offered a silver platter full of cameras and interviews, celebrities and well-wishers. He had Oprah’s private number. Cecile Richards wanted him to join her for Easter dinner. (Her daughter is cute, he’d noted.) Meryl Streep sent him a lovely longhand note on ivory paper, inviting him to the Oscars. The Universe had rendered good out of evil. It had used that little weirdo Niklaus Cruz to put David on TV in front of America and give him a chance to rant.

The Dream of David Hogg

And so he slept. But not untroubled. Faces, voices appeared to him, briefly, then went away. The students who’d died. He didn’t know most of them well, but as part of his media prep he’d been told to study the yearbook and memorize their names. So that’s how they appeared to him, even those he’d called friends. As silent, swirling yearbook photos, spinning like the fruit icons on an old-timey slot machine.

That troubled him. Because as their faces passed, the only voice he could hear in his head was … his own. A twinge of adolescent self-disgust rippled through him, and he started to writhe in his seat. And it got worse. Soon a number of faces appeared and stabilized. They hung there, in the air, and soon resolved into figures. In fact, they sat across from him, on a TV set. He was on yet another panel.

In fact, it was underway. No, no, I didn’t prep for this. What network was it, anyway? Whose show?

And then with a sinking feeling of utter panic, he realized: It’s my show. I’m the moderator. Looking up at one of the monitors, he saw the logo: “Hogg Wild, with David Hogg.” It was CNN, of course.

David looked at the guests. One was Parkland, Florida DEPUTY SCOT PETERSON. He hunched down in his chair, obviously nervous. Beside him was Broward County SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL, who somehow managed to swagger even while seated. Beside them was REP. STEVEN SCALISE, still recovering from his injuries in the attack on GOP congressmen. And some fellow David didn’t recognize. He wore a foreign military uniform, and gazed off serenely into the middle distance. On his face was a peaceful smile. 

The red light came on, and it was time for David to speak. But the teleprompter was blank!

And We’re Live, on CNN

INT. CNN STUDIO SET – DAY

HOGG
And we’re back, with the two Scotts from Broward County, Deputy Sheriff Scot Peterson in his first media appearance since the incident. And Sheriff Scott Israel, who leads law enforcement in my home county of Broward.

ISRAEL
Thank you, David. Leadership is what I’m about. And I commend you for following my example, stepping up to help end the plague of gun violence in America.

SCALISE
I think you’re trying to end something all right. But it’s not school shootings. That’s something which “the two Scotts” over there had a chance to stop. In person. When one was happening right inside a school, but the deputy over there and three of his colleagues….

HOGG
Now with all due respect, Congressman Scalise, that’s just not fair —

SCALISE
You know what’s not fair? Leaving the kids and teachers you’re supposed to protect to suffer and die…

PETERSON
My colleagues and I followed official protocols for encountering on-site active shooters. Job one: Establish a perimeter….

You want them to throw their lives away, just for a job?

ISRAEL
I’m not here to comment on the structure of our protocols. Those were established by law enforcement professionals, experts, the best in the industry —

SCALISE
The best? Better than the cops who dodged bullets to save my life, and half of the leadership in Congress? Maybe they should have run away and “established a perimeter….”

HOGG
Now Congressman, I was there. Nobody was running… none of the officers….

SCALISE
No, they were outside hiding. It was your fellow students who were running, away from a maniac whom our bureaucrats wouldn’t take in for treatment, whom the FBI got warned about a dozen times, with a gun it was already illegal for him to have—

ISRAEL
Just who do you think you are? MISTER Scalise? Just because you can get some Cajun fishermen to vote in you every two years, that doesn’t make you any less of a CIVILIAN. You’ve never had to make the tough choices, had to face down shooters.

SCALISE
Yes, I did! That is precisely what happened to me and a dozen other leaders of the United States Congress….

ISRAEL
But as a CIVILIAN. It wasn’t your job to protect anyone. Just … yourself.

SCALISE
And that’s what people like you and David over there want to make sure Americans can’t do. Protect themselves. At all. We’re supposed to rely on people like … YOU? And you, Deputy Peterson? I want to ask you a question….

HOGG
Now gentlemen, this is getting too personal.

ISRAEL
You have no standing to question professionals….

SCALISE
How do you sleep at night? And how can you look in the mirror? How?

PETERSON
Under advice of union counsel, I repeat that I was obeying to the letter the engagement protocols —

SCALISE
Then why did you resign? Why was the Sheriff here going to fire you? Why didn’t you fight it?

PETERSON
My pension was on the line. I’d earned that….

SCALISE
But did you? Did you earn it? Did Sheriff Israel earn his salary? I think if you did, we wouldn’t be here. David would be off playing foosball or something. But then maybe you wouldn’t be here, Deputy Peterson. I’ll admit that right now. You might be in the ground, with your good name intact, and a bunch of kids might still be alive.

DAVID
I think we’re entirely missing the point here about America’s sick, cowboy gun culture and outdated laws….

SCALISE
You know what’s sick? That MEN like the “Two Scotts” here are still walking around breathing the air, while the KIDS they swore to protect are dead and buried.

HOGG
Well what do you expect of them, Congressman? You want them to throw their lives away, just for a job? No job pays enough for that.

SCALISE
Then how do have a society? If you say that citizens can’t protect themselves, and then say that even the cops shouldn’t die to protect us. … What about our soldiers? Should they say, “It’s just a job,” and let our enemies conquer us? Where does it stop?

ISRAEL
This is a gross misrepresentation of the law enforcement community, and I can’t believe you’re attacking America’s servicemen and women. You call yourself a patriot?

At this point, something inside Deputy Peterson seems to snap. He stands up, red-faced, and starts to shout.

PETERSON
You think I should have ended up like this guy?

He points, fiercely, at the silent LT. COL ARNAUD BELTRAME, who wears a gold crucifix around his neck. Beltrame smiles gently in acknowledgement.

PETERSON
He’s so friggin’ courageous. He offers himself to a bunch of crazy ragheads —

HOGG
Now, that’s offensive —

PETERSON
Just up and offers himself, instead of one of the hostages. Where does it say that in the protocols, huh Sheriff?

Peterson wheels on Sheriff Israel, who just stares at him stony-faced.

PETERSON
Where does it say that? Who teaches us crap like that? Nobody, that’s who. But you all think I should have done that, should have ended up with my throat slit like a Ramadan goat, and three bullets in my belly! For what? For a bunch of punk kids like David over here, who wouldn’t give me the time of day?

Col. Beltrame looks up at him, and simply, solemnly, nods his head.

Peterson stares down at him, contemptuously.

PETERSON
You religious fanatics make me sick.

He storms off set.

Back to Reality

And David Hogg wakes up. The jet is circling over Logan Airport. He remembers that he’s supposed to be in Hyannisport in an hour.

This piece was inspired by Daniel John Sobieski’s worthy essay at American Thinker. Please go read that one too.