The Assassination of Charlie Kirk
Living in a world where you risk death for free thought
THE ASSASSINATION OF CHARLIE KIRK
Living in a world where you risk death for free thought
As I write it is 9/11. Twenty-four years ago, we Americans felt as one as a common foreign enemy attacked our countrymen as they went about their jobs in the Twin Towers or flew on airplanes. I still remember where I was that early September morning. Do you remember the 11th of September, 2001?
The day before yesterday, on the eve of 9/11, the world once again changed in the blink of an eye. Without warning or forethought, we saw the news on the television screen in disbelief, utter shock. Commentator Charlie Kirk had been shot at a college event in Utah! I could think of nothing else as reality settled in.
I lived in a world where one could risk death for free thought. This is America. Kirk was not a black American, but race was irrelevant to me. Freedom of thought is raceless. Readers of Free Black Thought are at one with all who embrace civil discourse, the ability to disagree without being disagreeable.
As Charlie himself said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence, that’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil and they lose their humanity.”
Charlie Kirk was subjected to the ultimate dehumanization on Wednesday, as he lived his values, talking to people and eschewing violence.
Before I continue, you must know I am a non-partisan. I have no dog in the hunt, no team in the political coliseum. Once upon a time I felt otherwise, but with age comes wisdom. If you ask “What is my party?” “Whose team am I on?,” I tell you as a free man I belong to those who cherish human dignity. I stand with those who honor creative expression and civil discourse. I am of the party of the individual.
It is an odd thing to perceive oneself in this way. We live in times of conformity. Too many would impose dogma upon us. Slogan words like racial equity, systemic racism, and restorative justice are delivered to the herd with the solemn force of the Ten Commandments. I reached my breaking point with dogma and slogan words when someone declared Blackness is Oppression. Nothing else matters! Well, maybe for you but not for me.
Charlie Kirk struck me as a fellow traveler. He had the idealism to believe in debate and civil discourse on college campuses. As a former law professor, I loved Charlie Kirk’s curiosity about shibboleths in the modern classroom. Just because someone said something was not good enough for Charlie Kirk. Dogma bemused Charlie Kirk and he traveled into the belly of the beast, far and wide, on many campuses to challenge students. It was possible to think outside the box. One should think outside the box since truth is nuanced and complex. Charlie Kirk lived this truth every day.
Was I a fan of Charlie Kirk? Did I follow Charlie Kirk on social media? No and no. I am a fan of types like computer scientist Lex Fridman and economist and commentator Glenn Loury. Fridman and Loury are both quirky intellectuals driven by a desire to understand the world. Those are my people, as I once wrote in a Substack essay.
I did not share Charlie Kirk’s partisanship because I am not a partisan. However, I recognized a kindred spirit who enjoyed debate and discussion as blessings of a free society.
One can appreciate the quest for knowledge and not demonize others who disagree. Those who apply the blunt force of dogma and slogan words have lost the ability of bemusement when others disagree. Perhaps their openness to experience is gone.
We who value freedom of thought in a free world must not be afraid. Charlie Kirk was not afraid as he risked his life for a simple proposition. Debate and discussion matter in a free society. There is no single way to think about issues of the day. Whether the issue be immigration, race, or transgenderism, we grow wiser as we hear different opinions and viewpoints. Holding a different view is part of being human. If there are over 8 billion people on the planet, there are over 8 billion stories, experiences, and perspectives. It is beyond ridiculous to impose one narrative on the world. I don’t think I’m the one who’s crazy.
What manner of man or woman would take a man’s life because of his opinions? We must remove these dangerous men and women from civil society. When John Wilkes Booth pulled the trigger at Ford’s Theatre, Booth knew his days were numbered in this world. And that is how it should be. Same goes for Lee Harvey Oswald who assassinated a young handsome President with his best years ahead of him. It is incumbent on us as humans to recoil at political murder.
Even if one puts aside politics for a moment, there is another reason why many heard the news about Charlie Kirk and felt a feeling we have grown to associate with 9/11.
“I don’t know why this is affecting me so personally.”
“It is because you are seeing that the marketplace of ideas you grew up believing was sacred is now a war zone that will get you killed. You’re struggling to reconcile the world you live in with the world you grew up in.”
I grew up in a world where one could disagree without being disagreeable.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk endangers creative expression. And as lovers of civil discourse, not partisanship but free black thought, we must continue to pen our essays, write our articles, draft our novels, speak our words. We feel the chill of intimidation, but one can only be intimidated if one consents to one's own intimidation. Do not engage bullies. It is not the safe book we need now. These are the times that try men’s souls. It is our duty to find the courage to write. Do not lose faith, dear readers. I will haunt you if you do. (Smile).
Those who murder visionaries do not win. Indeed, the opposite occurs. Murderers elevate the vision of those taken from us. John Wilkes Booth turned President Abraham Lincoln into an immortal martyr for the ages. Arguably, Lincoln was the last casualty of the Civil War. Villains murdered Mississippi State Senator Charles Caldwell on Christmas Day 1875. His memory lived on in the hearts and souls of black people in rural Mississippi. Senator Caldwell, not his assassins, is remembered in history books such as Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction. (And eternal shame on Wikipedia for reducing this man’s memory to eight sentences.) The death of President John F. Kennedy inspired public support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 changed public sentiment on civil rights, resulting in President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Fair Housing Act of 1968 into law 7 days later, on April 11, 1968.
The most important thing we can do right now is to channel the loss of Charlie Kirk into something lasting for freedom of thought in America. Let’s not advance divisive political narratives. Let’s cherish freedom of speech. Truth is nuanced and complex. We don’t have to live in a tumultuous relationship where the Left and the Right need relationship counseling. Show grace to those of a different opinion. Disagree, yes. Take up arms and kill, no.
We are passing through a portal as Americans. I can feel it. Many Americans are grief-stricken and feel the loss of America as an idea. Many others celebrate on TikTok or they remain silent because their media feeds suggest Kirk brought his own demise upon himself. Robert E. Lee and the slaveowners in Virginia had similar feelings on December 2, 1859, when they executed John Brown, who had stirred up a slave insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Lee and others hoped to silence Brown and intimidate visionaries of abolition. Killing Brown had the opposite effect and produced a revolution in public sentiment. Less than two years later, the Civil War began.
The blood of Charlie Kirk has been shed in full view for all the world to see. It is possible that it will spark a revolution in public sentiment. Those who celebrate spilling blood to silence ideas they hate may find they come to share the destiny of Robert E. Lee. The Confederacy would be defeated, hundreds of thousands would lose their lives in bloodshed, and the abolitionist vision of John Brown would prevail.
A writer friend said to me that it is weird for me to write this essay. I know what she meant. I am not a political partisan. I am fed up with relentless disharmony between the Left and the Right in our land. Give it a break, people. So, why should I write this remembrance? Because I am a human being. Because my tribe consists of the curious, the lovers of ideas shared and rearranged into a more perfect union. Because beyond the partisanship, I recognized something in Charlie Kirk that resonated within me. I am not Canadian, but I see parts of myself in my Canadian cousins. Similarly, I am not a partisan, but I sense I share a love for civil discourse with Charlie Kirk. This essay is not about shared partisanship. I write out of a shared humanity, the human condition.
I have a friend plunged into despair by the murder of Charlie Kirk. She loves freedom of speech. She is opinionated, which I like. The assassination of someone for their opinions and viewpoints frightens my friend. I told my friend not to lose hope. To lose hope is to allow murderers to control public discourse.
Well, no, dear murderer. You do not get to control the marketplace of ideas. You should become familiar with the friction of the hangman’s noose on your neck. That is my humble opinion. After all, the Rule of Law is greater than one person. Those who silence voices, who shed blood in public view, are not above the rule of law. Justice must prevail as we live in America. There should be no party line in the United States. There should be no tribal dogma or slogan words. There should be only human dignity, creative expression, and the individual.
The spirit of the dead will survive in the memory of the living. It has always been so. And so will it be now.
Rest In Peace, Charlie Kirk
W. F. Twyman, Jr., a former law professor, was born in Richmond, Virginia. He came of age in the New South in the 1970s. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School, Twyman is the author of the newly acclaimed book, Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America (co-author Jennifer Richmond). His essay in the Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine inspired the posthumous admission, in 2010, of the first black lawyer in New York state, George Boyer Vashon, to the Pennsylvania State Bar, which had denied him twice, in 1847 and in 1868. Wink contributes to Free Black Thought regularly, both in podcast and written form. A list of his contributions can be found here. He writes for Substack here.
Your essay has helped relieve some of my grief. I was not a follower of Charlie Kirk. I knew who he was but I was profoundly effected by his assassination. Now I understand why. I suppose if the same essay had been written by a political partisan it would not have had the same impact on me. I don't know. I just know that the open exchange of ideas, even those I disagree with, is the foundation of freedom. Keep writing so that I know freedom lives.
The ability to disagree without being disagreeable. Yes!!👏