NEVER FORGET 9-11 – RIP CHARLIE KIRK

I usually spend this day every September remembering fallen friends who were the victims of foreign terrorists. I’ve covered 9-11 in my past blogs. I stand by the memories and emotions indelibly associated with this day, my friends who passed heroically and tragically, and the emotional gestalt that remains with all of us to this day.

These feelings are especially heightened now, given that my own sons and their families are first responders who run towards the danger every day. God keep them and all of their brethren and sisters safe from all harm.

But today’s memorial has been overshadowed by yesterday’s brutal and senseless murder of a young man, Charlie Kirk. Thirty one years old. A young wife and two babies at home waiting for him to never again walk through the door of their home.

Whatever side of the political spectrum you may fall, that murder was an act of domestic terrorism. It must be vociferously and universally condemned by everyone with a soul. No exceptions.

I did not agree with everything CK said. I am far too libertarian – live and let live – in my political and social beliefs, and I consider his born again religious beliefs far too restrictive to my more spiritual, animistic practices. I believe the heart wants what it wants, loves who it loves and if someone wants to change their physical manifestations of the gender they are born into, they should be allowed to do so, but only after they reach the age where they can make other life changing decisions, and a parent’s rights to protect their children from making any such decision before that age are sacrosanct. But, as the father of exceptional male and female athletes, I would not want a male overcoming his athletic mediocrity by competing against women, who have sacrificed their childhood to excel at a sport the same way I would not want to allow for steroid use or blood doping to give any same sex athlete a distinct advantage. No one seems to mind barring those athletes from competition.

Don’t get me wrong, Jesus knew his shit. On the same vein, I believe JC would be horrified to see how his teachings have been coopted and bastardized over the centuries by far lesser humans and powerful religious organizations.

The Kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21 

But I have followed CK’s trajectory over the past decade and have watched countless hours of his on campus – take on all comers – debates. He was always fair, diplomatic, articulate, respectful and for someone who never went to college, absolutely brilliant. He exercised the Socratic Method better than any Law School Don I encountered on my way to my Juris Doctor. Prove me wrong.

You see, political debates between people with adverse viewpoints used to be respected and encouraged. For those of you who don’t fully grasp the concept, look up the 1965 debate between James Baldwin, a gay, black, brilliant American Writer and William Buckley, a conservative icon, whose own level of brilliance was recognizable in the skills and words of Charlie Kirk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tek9h3a5wQ

That debate – and many others like it – occurred during another time of extreme political and social upheaval during the last century.

So yesterday, while CK was engaging in the form of open debate with young people that this country needs now more than ever, some domestic terrorist shot him from the kind of distance that reflects that the assassin’s cowardice is far greater than his skill with a long gun.

Please don’t revert to the knee jerk response that it was the gun that was the problem yesterday. I am a devout defender of the Second Amendment, and a trained, licensed and proud owner of handguns. I don’t shoot people for no reason and blame S&W, just like I don’t drink and drive, just to blame the alcohol and car manufacturers if I kill an innocent person on the road. I take personal responsibility for my actions, good and bad. As Jesus would tell you, a carpenter doesn’t blame his tools.

Evil people will kill someone for no reason with whatever weapon they can put their hands on.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/iryna-zarutska-murder-ukraine-refugee-decarlos-brown-video-b2822782.html

For the record, the most horrifying moment of that North Carolina snuff film was the look on that young woman’s face when she gazed up at the animal that just took her life. That his were the last eyes she engaged, alone, frightened, in a foreign country after escaping a brutal war in her own, and just trying to return home after her late night shift in a pizza shop, is the definition of tragedy. As the father of a beautiful young woman, my paternal instincts caused me to just want to reach through the video and cradle her and tell her its all going to be all right.

But yesterday’s assassination underscores that lie.

I’m not sure of the motivation behind that assassination. I am sure that there is none that can support it.

Just like there was no justifiable motivation behind the 16 year old who shot up the Evergreen High School less than 50 miles from where I am typing this blog. He could just as easily have built a few pipe bombs or incendiary devices to carry out his evil deeds. And of course, he then took his own life before explaining to the world why he attempted to take those of his innocent classmates.

They write scientific papers on that kind of thing.

Notice how evil repeatedly chooses soft targets like unarmed women, children or gun-free zones.

I am not adverse to the idea that there should be clear and immediately legally challengeable red flag triggers to attempt to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. But I’m also not adverse to removing those individuals who have demonstrated that they present a threat to society, whatever tool they may use to carry out that threat. And I’ll be damned if I’m willing to surrender the one tool that can protect my family from any mortal threat, especially in a world that has hamstrung and demoralized modern law enforcement.

But I am not here to recommend that violence be met with violence. I abhor it. It is a last ditch measure to be used only when all other of society’s protections have failed you.

Now is a time when all sides of the political, social and religious spectrum must return to the public square and openly, passionately and peacefully debate their differences, WITH WORDS, accept that no one view should subjugate all others, and respect and engage in the concept of compromise.

Whether or not you liked Charlie Kirk’s passionate social, cultural, political or religious beliefs, you have to respect his desire to openly debate those beliefs with words alone, with all comers. He did that repeatedly at Universities, the one place where that kind of open exchange of ideas should be encouraged. His murder must be condemned by everyone.

While I cannot begin to understand the reasoning behind the cowardly sniper’s action, I can surmise that he (and I’m intentionally being sexist here because I cannot conceive of a woman capable of such a heinous act) was hoping that CK’s murder will ignite a tinder box of political violence and upheaval.

I beg the people on the right not to fall into that trap, to seek retribution or allow it to escalate into a civil war. I beg the people on the left not to encourage or in any way support violence against people who do not see the world through your lens.

FIND COMMON GROUND BEFORE WE ARE ALL BURIED BENEATH IT.

PROVE ME WRONG.