My name is Colin Hortman. I am the son of Melissa and Mark Hortman.

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On June 14th, 2025, my parents were assassinated by a radicalized person who believed my mother's work as a state representative and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota made her an enemy. In the months that followed, I grieved, advocated for policy change, and asked myself the same question on repeat:

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What can we do so this never happens to another family?

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The answer I've found is deceptively simple, and it starts with our words.

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The language of our public life has drifted far from the way most of us were raised to talk to one another. Opponents have become enemies. Disagreement has become condemnation. People in disagreement lean into dehumanizing language, and for people already on the edge that language builds into permission. Permission to harass, permission to threaten, and eventually, permission to act.

 

The same mechanism works in reverse. Language can de-escalate. It can re-humanize. It can remind us that the person across from us — the one we disagree with — is still a person.

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So, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing; using my words. That's the whole point — because I believe there is power in words, and I've seen what happens when we use that power carelessly.

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My message is simple: lower the temperature.

 

Not by avoiding hard conversations, but by having them differently. The stories I share will make you laugh. They'll make you cry. And I hope they'll give you permission to lean into the things most of us have been quietly avoiding — grief, division, and the gap between the people we are and the people we want to be.​

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My aim, in everything I do, is to help people find what they have in common, to see each other as human, and to model conversations with dignity. It's good for your family, your workplace, your community — and yes, for this country too.

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It's going to take all of us.

 

Thank you for taking the time to consider the cost of our words. I'm glad you're here. Let's set the tone, together.

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Colin

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