Moving Forward From Charlie Kirk

The Christian Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. I was eating lunch at Peninsula High School when I saw a TikTok video with the news. Like many others my age, social media has become my primary source of breaking news. Walking to class after lunch, I heard people talking about it in the halls. Opinions were mixed. Everyone was shocked. Kirk is very well known among my generation, with short clips of his debates going viral on TikTok and Instagram. Almost everyone knows who he is, and almost everyone has an opinion about him.

After lunch, I went to my last two periods of the day and forgot about everything. It couldn’t have been a big deal. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard news of a public figure being shot. We hear about shootings every day. Donald Trump, Brian Thompson, a random school shooting. I assumed for some reason that Kirk would survive, and went on with my day. As I was pulling out of my parking spot after school, a friend came up and knocked on my window. He told me Charlie Kirk had died. I disagreed with Kirk on almost everything. I believe that he misled people and had an overwhelmingly negative impact on our country, especially on my peers.

Driving home, I talked with my sister about the news, and it began to sink in. We talked about the irony of Kirk dying by a gun, since he was a strong supporter of gun ownership, saying that more guns on the street would reduce gun violence. I think my initial reaction and ability to find irony in someone’s death is an indicator of how far the division in our country has gone. We have lost touch with the fact that our opponents are still human.

The longer I processed everything, the more reality set in. Whether I agreed with the man or not, his murder is not justified. And whether I like it or not, his death is significant.

In one of my classes, I witnessed two people arguing because they were unable to understand the nuances in each other’s arguments. One said that Kirk’s death is comparable in significance to the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the other was outraged that someone would dare speak those two names in the same sentence. They were unable to realize that the comparison was about significance, not character. They agreed on this, but fought anyway, due to a lack of willingness to engage with another perspective.

It is not right that Kirk’s death is more politically significant than the thousands of others from gun violence in this country every year, but it is reality. Over the next few weeks, the murder was a common topic of discussion in school and on social media. Many people on Instagram reposted images praising Kirk, saying “Rest in Peace,” and condemning his assassination. The graphic video also circulated on the internet. Almost all of us saw it. My stomach churned when I watched. In the school halls, I heard extremely graphic jokes. Some people seemed to have gotten a kick out of the video, less because they disagreed with Kirk, but more because they have become so desensitized to violence. Videos of brutal murders and killings are nothing new on our devices. A more personal look at violence used to mean widespread public opposition to it. The advent of photography contributed to anti-war sentiment beginning with the American Civil War. Now it seems we don’t feel anymore.

I watched people debate online, in comment sections, and direct messages, with lots of finger-pointing. All that has come of this is more division. While condemning Kirk’s death is only fair, it is completely unfair to attack people who don’t praise him posthumously. His being killed, whether because of his beliefs or not, does not make his beliefs right. I disagreed with him. I don’t believe he deserved to die. I can hold these two beliefs at the same time.

The one obvious thing revealed by Charlie Kirk’s murder and the broad reaction to it is that people are frustrated, and political violence serves as an outlet for this anger. We are given enemies who are not actually the people causing us harm. Our system is broken. Our futures are bleak. Our outlook on life is pessimistic. Prices are high, wages are low, and education is more expensive than ever before. Depression and suicide increase every single year, especially among young people. We are not mad at each other. We are mad at the system, and the system is pushing us to blame ourselves.

Average Democrats and average Republicans are both good people. However, the average person is a person without power. We aren’t hiring an accountant to find tax loopholes. We aren’t lobbying the government to pass legislation that benefits us personally. We simply have a vote. And even that power doesn’t feel legitimate due to our broken political system. Anger is the reaction to feeling wronged and powerless. Those with power are the ones who are safe and the ones who prosper while we suffer.

My generation doesn’t know civil politics. The days of respectful debates between men like John McCain and Barack Obama are gone. Maybe this illusion of civility was the only thing keeping back the swaths of Americans unhappy with their lives. Now that savagery is normal — both verbal and physical — the behavior that we must have been holding back for years is finally showing itself.

What the future holds is uncertain. What is certain is that the direction we are headed is not good. Now is the time for us to do something.

Jonas Koller is a senior at Peninsula High School.