Republicans have lauded Charlie Kirk as someone who valued freedom of speech. Isn’t the celebration of Kirk’s death a form of free speech? If so, Kirk would condemn our President’s threat against the celebrants as “abridging the freedom of speech” in violation of the First Amendment.
I agree that the murder of Charlie Kirk should be harshly condemned. And I also believe that it’s offensive to celebrate his death because he had harsh and objectionable criticisms that you disagree with. Indeed, I believe in forgiving him posthumously for his rhetoric that offended you.
However, I can’t abide: using his death to launch get-even political violence, undermining free speech by threatening anyone celebrating Kirk’s murder; revoking visas for revenge against anyone found celebrating Kirk’s death; or eulogizing someone who spewed blatant racism; Specifically, Kirk:
- Said if I’m dealing with a moronic Black woman in customer service, I wonder if she’s there because of her competence or because of affirmative action.
- Intimated that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks and that they had to steal a white person’s slot to be taken seriously.
- Claimed there’s a liberal conspiracy to replace white Americans with people of color through open borders.
I also find the Republican’s bill lauding Kirk to be disingenuous. For example they described him as:
- A devoted Christian, who lived out his faith with compassion. But according to the UK’S leading Christian magazine, so many of his opinions were incongruous with Christianity. When people with a platform promote hate, Christians should have no part in it says, Dr Helen Paynter, a Baptist minister who teaches at Bristol Baptist College
- Someone who engaged in respectful, civil discourse and sought unity. But Kirk spewed incendiary rhetoric that fanned anger, fomented anxiety, division, fear, and distrust in other religions and races. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is described as a beacon of hope who drives out fear, dispels hate and dissolves division. In contrast with Kirk, Jesus would have driven out the fear, hate and division fomented by Kirk.
Compare Kirk diatribes with Trump’s, and you’ll see that Kirk has not expressed his own beliefs. Instead, they are merely echoes of Trump’s rhetoric.
Perhaps the saddest realization is that our President is a merchant of hate and fear with obedient disciples who, together, have led so many Americans into a desert lacking morality, integrity and respect for the truth, and making it so hard to be proud of our country,