By Phil Byrd, Staff Writer
We live in a society where information is at our fingertips. If an earthquake erupts in Indonesia, or a civil war breaks out in Africa, we can know within seconds. This constant onslaught of information can’t always be filtered. This was the case when the whole nation watched as conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk was shot on camera, and the image of a man bleeding and dying appeared all over Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
This level of political violence is despicable. The murder of an activist for his political beliefs, no matter how controversial some of those beliefs may have been, is always a tragedy that demonstrates the brokenness of humanity. Beyond that, not only was Kirk publicly killed, his death was seen by millions of Americans all over social media and the internet. The American people witnessed firsthand the depravity of murder on a massive scale, which understandably inflamed political tensions across the country.
That being said, Kirk’s death has also revealed something about the leaders of our nation. Prominent political leaders were quick to make this a problem of partisan political violence. Rather than bring the American people together after they witnessed a graphic tragedy go viral, many leaders blamed extremists on the left and the right, respectively, quickly politicizing a situation that should have one solution: grief. Grief for the death of someone for speaking. Grief for the gun violence that plagues our nation.
Further, Kirk’s death has revealed how quickly we as a nation give in to division. The media and politicians on the left and right have divided our nation so much that we’ve dehumanized anyone who disagrees with us. As sad as it is that our leaders have focused on division rather than unity, it is even sadder that the American people so quickly followed suit. Quickly, the aftermath of Kirk’s murder was compared to that of Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota Speaker of the House killed in June. Rather than recognize that neither instance of political violence was justified or okay, many tried to debate which instance of violence was worse. But this simple fact remains: when you separate violence into “us” and “them,” you put a value on the worth of human life.
One thing that Charlie Kirk emphasized throughout his career was the importance of discussion. This principle is exactly what is needed to overcome this widening divide in our nation. The further we allow ourselves to be divided, the less we see each other as human beings with value. To overcome this, we need to talk to each other.
Finally, Kirk’s death, as with any, demonstrates the fleetingness of life. A perfectly healthy 31-year-old man’s life was over in an instant. Death does not discriminate between age, political belief, race or anything in between. Bullets do not distinguish between conservatives and liberals. Death is a natural part of life, and is unstoppable. Therefore, it is important to cherish what little time we have in life.
