What are we even doing?
Well this is probably a little premature but it is kinda the only thing I can think about right now.
Charlie Kirk just got shot and killed at an event. I don’t even remember where I read it happened. And I’m not going to look it up right now.
I’m not sure what is happening with this country right now. I’m not sure if it has always been happening and we are just more aware because we live in it presently.
What I do know is that you have a 31-year old guy with two young children and a wife who was assassinated today for talking in a microphone. For having ideas and talking about them. For holding a forum where people can ask questions and he can offer rebuttals. Regardless of where you stand politically this is not an option.
We should be open-minded. We should be allowed to have differences - in opinion, in taste, in preference, in ideas, in lifestyles. Isn’t that what the celebration of diversity is about? Aren’t we all different in some way?
I don’t know who did it or why, it happened just a few hours ago. But I saw a video, I saw multiple videos, of him getting hit in the neck and blood pouring out. I knew as soon as I saw it he wasn’t going to make it. This is unbelievable and reprehensible on every level no matter what he was talking about. It doesn’t matter if you are Liberal, Republican, Independent, Scientologist, Christian, NRA, Jehovah, or Libertarian. Why can’t we have conversations about things anymore?
Why can’t we have open debate and discuss ideas? Why can’t we present thoughts to the broader whole and allow people to make up their own minds with the things they hear?
Maybe there are dull people. Maybe there always has been. Maybe we will never understand that just because you think it doesn’t make it true. You have to hear different things and put it all together and find the facts. You have to be able to say, “Maybe I’m wrong.” The ones that hold onto ideas convinced that they are right are the ones you have trouble navigating change and dissent.
This guy was very popular with a chunk of the world. This guy was very unpopular with a chunk of the world. But being famous for having ideas and traveling the country to talk about them and engage college students does not condone murder in open public. It makes my stomach sick. No one should fear for their life for speaking out loud. And those poor kids who woke up with a father this morning can’t say the same anymore.
