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In the Wake of Charlie

Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” What most people may not know is that this saying is in reference to a Bible verse, Matthew 12:25, Jesus said “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” I think it’s a great description of where we might be today. What both Jesus and Abraham Lincoln both spoke about was division among the people, for different things of course- Abraham Lincoln spoke about division among the people in regards to slavery, Jesus spoke about division within himself. If he was of the devil, how then could he cast himself out. Division nonetheless. But I mention this because we’re in a very divided place right now, these are the times. In my opinion, when someone is hurting we all hurt beside them.    

I’m not one for politics and I don’t speak much of it because I don’t feel well versed in the things that take place. In the last few years I have developed my own views and politics because I don’t want to remain ignorant in the public square. I feel like with the events that took place on September 10th and the passing of Charlie Kirk, a well known political figure- I feel like a shift has occurred where we can all have a seat at the table. 

Before I go on, I do want to make a note. This Monday Reflections is in no way a political peace. I don’t see myself in the future making comments about right or left-wing politics. I just feel that there’s so many layers to this tragedy that some things may be overlooked. It’s been 12 days since his assassination but the change in the air still feels crisp since that fateful day, and I felt it should be talked about. When tragedy struck I felt a wave of sadness, anger, confusion-the list can go on and on. But as the reports were coming in, all I could think about were this assassin’s parents. 

I know it’s a strange thing to think about, his parents. But I’m sure that the shock of finding out it was their son hit them the same, if not even worse than the shock the nation felt when we heard of Charlie’s passing. It reminded me of Columbine in ‘99. I was only a year old when that happened but I read Sue Klebold’s memoir about her son Dylan, or as she liked to call him her “shiny penny” in her book A Mother’s Reckoning. In the beginning of her book she writes about the morning of April 20, 1999 and how upon hearing of a shooting at her son’s school, she searched high and low for her son’s trench coat because of reports of the alleged perpetrators outfits, he owned one. This book for me was such a heavy book, it made me feel like I was in the room talking to her. I eventually had to put her book down because my soul couldn’t handle the weight of her words as she described one of the harder days of her life. Losing her son in the wake of a tragedy he helped orchestrate and then having to start a whole new life as a result of that pain. It took me a year to finish that book. 

I think of this assassin’s mother who had no idea what her son was up to that day. I think of his father who, even though loves his son the only way a father knows how, wanted to make sure he was held accountable for his actions and turned him in. I think of his grandmother, who was the first to go by his side and defend him claiming it’s impossible for him to have done that because he’s not that kind of man. All I could think about yesterday watching the Charlie Kirk memorial was his family, how blindsided they must have been to realize that it was their son’s doing that caused the memorial to happen. Were they sitting watching along with the rest of the nation?

 I have this feeling that things like this happen when we stop letting others have a seat at the table, and I think social media’s to blame. During the 2020 election my siblings and I couldn’t hold a conversation without one of us getting nasty and calling the other names. This is why politics is not a table conversation at home, emotions run high and disrespect is the only thing coming out from our mouths. I think that the sadder part of this whole situation is that I feel we’ve come to the point that the only way to “keep the peace” is to cut off everything and everyone who disagrees with the message we’re bringing. It’s what we saw on September 10th. This young assassin felt that the only way to protect his peace and his partner was to remove the one who opposed his ideas, not only to keep him from speaking ever again but to stop his message altogether. At the end of the day, all this widow would do in return for her husband’s assassin was forgive him. 

I think that the only way to ever evolve in this world is through conversation, no two people think the same and I think that’s what we could take away from September 10th. If you don’t like something, speak up and share your thoughts, have healthy dialogue. We never stop learning from each other, but trouble erupts when we stay silent. I think social media has had its hand in why there’s such discord, it’s made people both on the right and left think that they can’t speak to each other. If they did, they are what that other group believes about them and that’s not healthy. I do feel that this tragedy has woken up a lot of people to the reality that there is something wrong, a lot of things are not being said. If they are being said then it’s in a disrespectful manner. How do we move forward from this?     

I want to pose a question to my readers, wherever you may be. No matter how you think, whether that be socially, politically etc. in light of what has happened, how do we approach division? What do we do when the people we love disagree with us on the topics that matter to us? How do we evolve and learn to grow if we don’t have healthy dialogue? — I look forward to hearing from you.