This is neither a eulogy or condemnation of Charlie Kirk. I didn’t agree with him the same way I didn’t agree with Rush Limbaugh but he had a right to express his views as guaranteed by the Constitution’s First Amendment. As Voltaire said, I may disapprove of what you say, “but I will defend to the death you right to say it” (so long as you’re not goading a mob into attacking the U.S. Capitol or some other form of violence).
Having said that, it’s interesting and more than a little hypocritical how certain ones have turned this tragedy into an opportunity to vent their rage at the so-called “radical left,” as if one end of the political spectrum is solely responsible for the political vitriol that now characterizes a once-United States.
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, for example, said the left “owns this,” as if the Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol never occurred or the Unite the Right rally never happened in Charlottesville in 2017 or that lynchings of black people was not the number one method of entertainment in the South until football came along, or that a certain right-leaning reality TV star didn’t once utter the complete nonsensical declaration that blacks were happier in the fields picking cotton.
Donald Trump vowed vengeance against the “radical left” for the killing which he said made Kirk a “martyr for truth.”
Exactly what “truth” would that be? Was it Kirk’s calling Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King an “awful” person? Was it his calling Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson an unqualified “diversity hire” while ignoring Trump’s employment of his own kids during his first term? Was it calling the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act a “mistake” and “an anti-white weapon”? Was it his support of the “replacement theory” conspiracy that Jews were trying to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants (that subsequently prompted a gunman to kill 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue seven years ago)? Was it his lip service to free speech while at the same time promoting his “Professor Watchlist” by urging students to identify professors with leftist positions? Was it his steadfast denial of climate change? Or was it his ironic support of gun rights when he said it was impossible to avoid gun deaths in a society with an armed citizenry but that the benefits of gun rights outweighed the costs of “some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”?
So, please tell me which truth was he martyred for. I really want to know.
A reader of this blog wrote me to say, “They (the MAGHATs) wanted [the shooter to be] a gay, trans, black Muslim, College Democrat, atheist, named José Jabar Abdul Valdez, who hated guns, ate vegan from Massachusetts, with ties to Ukraine, with a PhD in Literature and Women’s Studies from Berkeley. What they got was a young, white male Mormon gun lover from a MAGA family — an uneducated electrician’s apprentice from Utah.”
Gonna be difficult to justify vengeance against the “radical left” with those demographics.
Louisiana Voice 
You are right , Tom. But, it has started. Threats to black colleges and painting the word “murderers” on the headquarters building of the Louisiana Democratic Party in Baton Rouge.
Haven’t heard a thing from TACO since the shooter was identified as a young white male from a MAGA FAMILY. Where are their retributions now? WHO is going to receive them?
Exactly!
Rosemary Robertson Smith
Sent from my iPhone
The shooter was immersed in online communities and likely identified with the Groyper Army, people who follow white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Groypers had a grudge against Kirk (I don’t know exactly what as I don’t keep that close watch on racist morons). Groypers also talk about “engraving bullets” that carry their retribution. The shooter was likely radicalized by the really extreme right against the MAGA fascist right. The “left” had nothing to do with Kirk’s killing but to stupid and dishonest MAGA fascists will forever be the “murderers” of Charlie Kirk. Just like the 2020 election will always be “stolen” from Trump. The full truth may eventually come out but MAGA already has the only “truth” they want.
And they’ve already invented not one but two trans conspiracies because of course they did. Nothing is easier to swallow in MAGA world than the affirmation of their ignorant prejudices.
And the congregation shouted, “AMEN!!!”
Unfortunately, those of us in this congregation may as well be writing and speaking in Mandarin when we try to share our views with those in the MAGA congregation – and vice versa. Their views are as foreign to me as ours are to them. We can speak truth to power all day, but our truth and reality is different from theirs, so it has NO effect on them other than inspiring even more fervor. The most we can hope for is to encourage others in our congregation to not give up. If we all become sheep the outcome is pre-ordained.
I’m part of this congregation so “Amen!” People say Mr. Kirk was a true follower of Jesus and was not ashamed to tell others about Him. I’ve tried to be fair in my evaluation of Mr Kirk by doing my own look into what he says and believes. For the life of me, I am having trouble reconciling many of his words and teachings with who I believe Jesus is. The one thing I support him on is his saying Trump needed to be transparent on the Epstein files. Though Trump says all these wonderful things about Kirk and wants to make him a martyr, he has yet to release those files. I wonder how much Trump is just “using” this situation for himself. I think I know.
Agree with Mr. Spillman and Mr. Winham. I saw a young Pastor on MSNBC, Texas legislature running for US Senate, there is hope and we must keep up the good journalism/thoughts. thanks