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Today is a dark day in American history. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was killed at one of his events in Utah. "Killed” is probably not the right word to use in this scenario, "assassinated" or "martyred" would probably be more appropriate terms, we’ll have to wait and see how the historians chose to classify this event. Regardless of what words are used to describe tragedy, Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die.
At the time of me writing this I know nothing about Kirk’s killer but it is undoubtable that Kirk was killed for the expression of his ideas, his killing was wholly un-American. In America we believe that we have unalienable rights granted to us buy our Creator, among these are the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and the freedom to peaceably assemble. Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die for his ideas. No one with the right to call themself an American believes that a man should be killed because of his ideas or for his speech, despite this there are many people today who were born within this country’s borders who are celebrating this noble man’s death. America is clearly sick.
I’m reminded of when Trump was shot in the ear last summer. At the time many people were saying that at that moment we were only an inch away from civil war, suggesting that if Trump had been killed that day the country would have broken out in violence. We should all be glad that God spared us from that happening but I remember thinking to myself, “I’m a fighting age male with the equipment to throw myself into a civil war. If this assassination was the sign that I needed to take my guns to war, who would I fight? And who would I follow? I realized that neither of those questions had an answer and it was clear to me then, and remains clear now, that violence is not the answer to the problem we find ourselves in.
But what is the answer? How do we fix this? We live in a world where thousands if not millions of people believe that people like Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk along with anyone who supports them are nazis and fascists, racists and misogynists. These people think that Christians and Republicans want to commit genocide on minorities and queer people then burn down every tree on the planet to kill the environment. These people believe that they, we, deserve to die; but none of these things are true, their beliefs about us could not be farther from the truth. Regardless of this, they’ve already shot Donald Trump and they just killed Charlie Kirk, so again I ask, how do we fix this? What is the answer?
As I pondered on those questions today I realized that Charlie Kirk was the answer, which makes his death even more heartbreaking. Unlike the sick people who are cheering the man’s death we don’t believe our political enemies are evil. Instead we believe they are mistaken, as they clearly don’t understand us. People liked to make fun of Charlie for going around debating dumb college kids in order to make himself look cool on the internet but that wasn’t what he was doing. Charlie Kirk spent his life trying to correct these peoples’ misunderstandings by teaching the truth at as close to an individual level as he could. He traveled the country to teach people that America was founded on the principles of freedom, not slavery; that Christianity is a religion of love, not hate; and that the people that happen to vote Republican are humans, not monsters. If more people understood these truths rather than the lies that have been spreading around in recent years Charlie Kirk would still be alive.
There is more that could be said but I feel like I should end here. Charlie Kirk was a great man who did not deserve to die, the world is a darker place without him. Pray for his family. Pray for this country which he loved. Pray for the type of hope he had that things would get better with action. Pray for the type of courage he had to stand up for the truth and to correct the misunderstandings of the people who now celebrate his death.
I believe we should follow his example and spread the truth about
America, we don’t have to convince anyone to vote differently but we do
have to convince people that we, the people who simply disagree with
them, are human too, that we aren’t evil and that we don’t hate them. We
need to do this
so that nothing like this ever happens again. America is sick but we
cannot let her die, Charlie Kirk died fighting to keep her alive and it
is our job to carry on the fight, the fight for peace and an end to the
deep division we find ourselves in.