Everything seemed normal for Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10. He was at Utah Valley University, doing the usual, passing out MAGA hats, debating adolescent college kids, and giving speeches about being conservative. As he was answering a question ironically about violence, a shot was fired at 12 p.m., which hit his neck.
As blood gushed through, he was later pronounced dead.
Kirk’s death has caused shock, anger, and sorrow across the entire country. People from both sides of the aisle have expressed their thoughts and condolences. I didn’t agree with a lot of Charlie Kirk’s opinions; I actually thought they were mostly radical. However, that doesn’t change the fact that he was still a father, a son, and a husband. If we take the politics out of it, he was just a guy who was shot because someone hated him. They thought that because he was different, he deserved a bullet through his neck.
Former President Barack Obama posted his condolences on X.
“This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” Obama said. “Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
Even though there are those who disagree with a lot of what Kirk’s rhetoric is, they are still against the idea of violence and the pain it causes.
“Someone needs to say it,” former LHS teacher Jordan Rhodes said. “I may not feel a lot of sympathy, but violence is absolutely intolerable in a civilized society.”
Those who have met Kirk in person feel at a loss.
“The passing of Charlie Kirk really hits close to home for me,” Ja’Qoun Stembridge, the Charmian of Georgia Teen Republicans, said. “I have been blessed to attend several Turning Point events. Charlie left a lasting impact on me and so many other young students all across America.”
I didn’t always agree with Charlie Kirk, but he did not deserve to die. Children will have to grow up without a father, and a wife has been made a widow. We cannot shoot people because we disagree with them. We live in a great country, where people think differently. All of that goes out the window when violence becomes the answer to varying opinions. At the end of the day, we need to denounce violence and celebrate various aspects of our differences. Our differences make us who we are. It’s not something to suppress, but to embrace.
Nobody wins when people resort to violence. This is bigger than just politics. It’s about life. It’s about helping each other and realizing that our world is broken. What we need isn’t more of who is to blame; it’s more compassion. We need to get back to being an America where people can disagree, believe differently, and still respect one another without hate, more division, and certainly without violence.
