Yesterday at around midday, I drove home from grabbing some lunch for myself and my family. In my peripheral, I noticed that my phone flashed with a notification from the New York Times, but I didn’t check the news until I parked. And there were the words that ripped a gasp from my throat: “Charlie Kirk shot in the neck at Utah event.”
Immediately, a pit formed in my stomach to read that news. At that point, I didn’t know all the details, but I knew that Mr. Kirk’s life was in danger because a shot in the neck is fatal more often than not. And sure enough, official announcements of his death came one or two hours later.
The news felt almost unbelievable at the time. For years, I had seen countless videos of Charlie Kirk as he was truly a powerhouse in right-wing conservative circles. I didn’t agree with Charlie on quite a few points, but I could appreciate how he was willing to have conversations with people in an effort to change their minds. In the 2010s when I was a teenager and when Kirk, Ben Shapiro, and other conservative debaters were on the rise, I found it refreshing that there were some who would walk into the literal lion’s den of most American university campuses to take on angry, left-leaning debaters. And even though I wasn’t convinced by their points sometimes, I recognized that they appealed to the youth who were sick of being yelled at for “wrong” opinions.
So in a way, Kirk and others were the mouthpiece for that cohort. And Charlie Kirk turned this eagerness to debate into a formidable political empire.
Following his death, I have seen a myriad of opinions, with the more extremes coming from both political sides. Laughter and mockery from the left, calls for violence against political opponents from the right as “vengeance” for Charlie’s murder.
This all only goes to show the extreme cruelty that has possessed our nation due to political divisiveness. And with reactions like these, the chasm between the two sides grows wider while the people like me near the center are left wondering what is happening to this nation.
To be cruel, to be nasty, to be spiteful towards others are behaviors demonstrated by both sides of the political spectrum. There’s a cognitive dissonance when people on the left grieve the deaths of certain races but laugh or shrug their shoulders when people like Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarustka, and Austin Metcalf are senselessly killed. Likewise, it’s just as appalling when Democratic lawmaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband are killed in their home and the right refuses to care. I’m extremely sick of the hypocrisy that comes from both sides whenever a significant event like this arises.
It shouldn’t be a political stance that violence of all forms is abhorrent and never acceptable. It shouldn’t depend on your politics whether you give condolences to someone who has lost their life. Are we not all made in the image of God?
I can only hope and pray that our country can somehow heal from the horrific cruelty that has taken hold of many in this day and age. I pray that no more senseless violence comes from the actions of a deranged few. I pray that law, order, and decency returns to this country. And I pray that Charlie Kirk’s killer is brought to justice swiftly.