Boy, there are a lot of people on the left who need to learn Abraham Lincoln's caution: "It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." In the wake of Charlie Kirk's death, while there have been many beautiful statements of consolation and support for Charlie's family, and many great eulogies of the man and his work, there have also been some truly loathsome statements from the left.
Case in point: The co-owner of an Ohio BBQ joint, one Aaron Sharpe, a minority owner of Lucius Q BBQ, responded to a Facebook post about Charlie's murder with a hideously inappropriate and hateful comment.
Shortly after Kirk, 31, was shot Wednesday while speaking at a campus event in Utah, Aaron Sharpe, co-owner of Lucius Q in Cincinnati, commented on a Facebook post from someone offering prayers for the husband and father of two.
"Good riddance," Sharpe wrote in a post that is no longer publicly visible but has been circulated widely online in screenshots. "What a piece of s---," he added.
On Wednesday evening, Sharpe doubled down on Facebook, posting, "Don't you dare come at me with your hypocrisy. … If you think that threats of social media attacks on me or my business will in any way keep me silent about what I believe, you are sorely mistaken."
Yeah, here's the thing: It's not his business anymore.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Sharpe for comment. By late Friday morning, his Facebook account appeared to be deactivated.
On Thursday, several of Lucius Q's business partners announced they had cut ties with the restaurant. Lucius Q later announced it had parted ways with Sharpe.
Cincinnati's TQL Stadium, home to Major League Soccer's FC Cincinnati and is a former Lucius Q vendor site, took to social media saying it had terminated its relationship with the restaurant.
"FC Cincinnati and TQL Stadium expect our vendors and partners to uphold the values of respect and tolerance that are core to our club’s identity," the stadium said in its statement.
He fooled around. Now he's finding out.
Read More: New Information About Charlie Kirk's Assassin Doesn't Fit the Left's Narrative
Look, this character has the right to speak his mind, in person and online. Nobody's questioning that. After all, that's precisely what Charlie Kirk did, right up until some leftist nutcase killed him for it. Aaron Sharpe has the right to climb up on a soapbox, real or virtual, and spew all the bile and hate he likes, so long as he isn't inciting violence.
But the First Amendment doesn't shield him from the consequences of that speech. Nor does it guarantee him an audience. It's uncertain whether Sharpe, in response (we hope) to massive negative feedback, deactivated his Facebook account or whether Facebook did it for him; I do not have an account with the Book of Face and so am unfamiliar with their standards and practices. But his business partners sure didn't seem to waste any time freezing him out, no doubt in part to try to arrest the income they're bound to lose.
The American people have, by and large, reacted with horror and outrage to Charlie Kirk's assassination. The American people have, by and large, expressed great support and sympathy for Charlie's widow and children, who must now figure out how to go on without him. That's not political. It's human. It's not in service of an agenda. It's just common decency. We observe the decencies. Aaron Sharpe, clearly, does not.
Now it's costing him financially. And to that I can only say this: Good.
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