We're still getting over the shock of a political assassination, planned and carried out against a conservative political activist who was doing nothing more than talking. Talking with a group of people. Charlie Kirk was not inciting anyone to anything. He was engaging people in a dialogue. That's what he did. That's all he did. He made the case for his positions; he did so politely, eloquently, and cheerfully. He made his case without apology for his opinions, and he went into the lion's den - university campuses - to do so. His death is hard to take, not only because it appears to have been a political assassination, but because he was a young man, a husband and father, with a beautiful family whom he loved, and who loved him.
Charlie was open, honest, and forthright. He was an unabashed conservative activist. His goal was not to bully or intimidate, but to inform and persuade.
On Wednesday, someone killed him for it.
A political assassination. In the United States. It's happened before, assassinations and attempted assassinations, of presidents, of congressmen, of various office holders. But Charlie was none of those things. He was just a private citizen, speaking his mind, engaging anyone who wished to have an open discussion.
On Wednesday, someone killed him for it.
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Charlie focused his efforts on engaging young people. That's appropriate. They are, after all, the people who will be deciding the course of the country in the coming years, in the coming elections. Charlie was one of them, only 31 when he was murdered; two of my children are older than he was. So, I wasn't exactly Charlie's target audience, but over the last few years, I became aware of Charlie's work through the wonders of the internet. I became aware of the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, and the work and effort he poured into it.
Most of all, I noticed what Charlie did and how he did it. He just talked with people. He didn't lecture, he didn't hector. He had a dialogue. Charlie didn't speak to people, he spoke with them. He did it politely. He did it with a smile. Most of all, he did it with conviction.
On Wednesday, someone killed him for it.
Wednesday, when the horrible event unfolded in front of us, I thought back on the attempts on President Trump, the shooting of Steve Scalise, and even back to when President Reagan was shot. This trend has been building for some time, and it's almost always the left that descends into this, into violence, into assassination. Oh, they accuse the right of "violent speech," but that's the purest crap. It's almost always the left that picks up a weapon.
Wednesday, when the horrible event was still fresh on our televisions and on our computer screens and phones, I was reminded of the words of William Butler Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Yeats wrote this at the end of the Great War, with the Irish War of Independence starting up. "The Second Coming" was a caution that when things fall apart, violence ensues, that "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
Is that happening now? I'm afraid it might be, and Charlie Kirk's murder may be another step in our path to a dark place. Sooner or later, the right will have had enough. And as I've often written, the left seems to view political unrest as a rheostat, where they can turn the heat up or down as suits; the right tends to view this as a toggle, with one setting at "peaceful discourse," and the other, "raise the black flag."
Charlie Kirk was engaged in the peaceful discourse.
On Wednesday, someone killed him for it.
I don't want that black flag to go up. I don't want massive civil unrest - not again. I don't want to see young American men taking up arms against other young Americans. We went through that once, and it engendered ill feelings that still exist today. I don't want to see my country torn apart. But that's what acts like these may well lead us to.
As I write this, the hunt for Charlie's assassin is still ongoing. They appear to have found the weapon used, described as a bolt-action hunting rifle. As my colleague Bonchie reported only moments ago, there was a fair amount of physical evidence left at the scene, which leads one to believe that the shooter will - we hope - be swiftly apprehended. We note also that "transgender" and "anti-fascist" comments were reportedly engraved on the ammunition still in the rifle.
Charlie Kirk did nothing but speak his mind and engage people in dialogue. He set a model that all of us should appreciate and try to emulate. He spoke with people, people who agreed with him, people who did not agree with him - it didn't matter. I had the impression that he liked people, all people, people that agreed with him, people that didn't. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. That's the kind of thing that should engender respect: A man of conviction, a man of integrity. That's what Charlie Kirk was.
If Diogenes were about in the world today, with his lantern, looking for an honest man, he would have stopped to take a good look at Charlie Kirk. He was an honest man.
On Wednesday, someone killed him for it.
