“Why did he die, Mommy?”
It was a still, dark late-summer night on Sept. 14 at the Northbrook Village Green. The mother of the little girl who made this comment shushed her and took her hand as they crossed the street. They were making their way to a gazebo eclipsed by a mass of people decked out in American flags and MAGA hats, ready to pay their respects in a vigil to the recently-assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Candles flickered. Signs blew in the soft wind. Soon, the crowd and the crickets would begin to sing.
Despite the reverence at this particular gathering, Kirk’s death has faced wildly different reception across the nation. While some have made Kirk a martyr for innocent, reasonable debate, the truth is that not all beliefs are rational, and not all beliefs should be treated as such. Kirk’s convictions included an opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a belief that Jewish people finance “cultural Marxism” in “not just the colleges; it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it” and an insistence that Democrats are purposefully allowing immigrants into the country in a plot to make America less white. These are not ordinary partisan issues. These would be considered ridiculous by reasonable people across the political spectrum.
But the fact is no matter how unconscionable some of his opinions were or whether you feel they harmed others, violence is never the answer. A single person in a time of peace should never feel entitled to end a political opponent’s life.
That’s not their decision.
That’s not their right.
And most of all, that’s not the way to make positive change in a democracy.
Maybe this assassin, in some twisted way, thought they were making the world a better place by killing Kirk. But that idea couldn’t be further from the truth.
Not only were they brutally ending someone’s life in front of his wife and children and thousands of people, they were wrenching even wider the chasm between our citizens, adding fuel to the fiery climate of terror and us-versus-them mentality that is threatening to swallow America whole. Rather than advancing any coherent cause, they have stirred up calls for even more political violence and given any would-be authoritarians an excuse to crack down on entire sections of the political spectrum. That’s not progress. Not justice. And certainly not funny.
It was Maya Angelou who once said, “Equal rights, fair play [and] justice are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it.” Maybe the debate over whether people can say, like Kirk did, that transgender women in locker rooms should be “taken care of” like it’s “the 1950s and ’60s” is still ongoing. But the debate over whether people should be executed in cold blood and without due process? It certainly isn’t.
If some don’t have the right to avoid being slaughtered by those who disapprove of them, then no one does.
And, yes, Americans haven’t agreed on anything for a while.
But maybe, in the aftermath of this shocking murder, we can agree on this.
We, Knight Media, believe violent death is something that should never be celebrated and all deaths deserve the most basic of respect, even if you disagree with the deceased’s political views, think they have caused significant harm or feel they wouldn’t show you the same courtesy.
We believe violence against political opponents, no matter how harmful you think their convictions are, is not only ineffective but counterproductive, leading only to further violence and a climate of heightened hatred and fear. We believe the right not to be killed for one’s beliefs by a lone shooter acting as judge, jury and executioner is a right so essential, democracy cannot survive without it.
In short, we believe free speech is like a child holding its mother’s hand in a crowd on a still September night. If our country decides we should let go of it for even a minute for what we believe are extenuating circumstances, we may never see it again.
