Reflection
Politics/Social Commentary
2025-09-16
I've been trying to pick apart the multitude of emotions that have bloomed within me at the news of and reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk. I've written a little each day since the shooting, each time coming back feeling a little differently than the day before. I find myself in such a strange place. The Annunciation Catholic School shooting happened mere miles from where I type this, but when that news broke, while I was somber and my heart broke for those children and their families, I was not surprised. How awful to not be surprised by such senseless and tragic violence directed at the innocent. Welcome to America.
In contrast to the Annunciation shooting, after I first saw the reports that Charlie Kirk had been shot while speaking to a crowd of students, I could not tear myself away from the news stream. I was in something of a disbelieving stupor as the possible implications and repercussions spun through my head and began to develop before my eyes. I felt the same pull as the rest of the country, wanting to know why and whose “side” was responsible.
But after all the ups and downs, I've realized that the ideology behind the motive doesn't actually matter very much—what matters is the motive itself, which was to silence.
That silencing has left me feeling deflated. Every step this country has taken recently feels like a step backwards, away from the possible future where we extricate ourselves from the algorithm, meet in the public square as equals, and hammer out the messy details of a shared republic. I had a professor in graduate school who wanted the seminar table to be a battle ground, and then for all of us to get a beer together afterwards. That future state of the universe feels less and less probable with each passing news cycle. The catalyst of social media has exaggerated and calcified the differences between us, leaving resentment and anger as the prime movers of our political system.
Perhaps we'll reach a brink, peer over the edge, and finally realize that the status quo can only lead to disaster. But what horrible event would have to occur to precipitate such a moment of reflection I do not dare imagine, especially since I am writing this on the days surrounding September 11th. Maybe only a resounding event of reconciliation and hope, one for which no side could take credit or blame, would be enough for us to finally take a step in the other direction, but no one seems to be holding their breath for any Peace Train coming around the bend.
I count myself among those left-of-center free speech advocates, those who believe that honest, good-faith conversation is one of the only anecdotes to the bumper-sticker, tribal politics of today. I have long been a critic of “cancel culture” on both sides of the political spectrum. Ezra Klein is getting dragged by the Left for a short opinion piece he wrote entitled “Charlie Kirk was Practicing Politics the Right Way.” Klein's point isn't that Kirk was a model conservative intellectual, but that Kirk was an organizer, a persuader—someone who would dialogue with the other side (even if that dialogue wasn't always in the best of faith). He was someone using his free speech for what free speech is for, even though us lefties didn't like how he used it. Especially in recent years, he used his platform to further divide the country, denigrate transpeople and immigrants, and at times even mock political violence perpetrated on the Left (for example, when he called for some “patriot” to bail out Paul Pelosi's attacker). But none of that justifies violence. And that's the crucial, entire point of the protected right of free speech.
I'm worried about what comes next.
The Trump administration has—somehow—hardly needed to justify the ways it has broken with myriad past norms, and now, according to JD Vance, it is marshalling the full might of the Executive Branch to punish a supposed network of liberal groups who incite or fund violence. If ICE is any indication, I'm sure they will use a transparent, carefully mitigated procedure to choose just who gets to count as part of this so-called “network”. Elected Republicans and their pundits across the board have been saying all week that political violence is a problem only on the Left, using the heightened tension of the moment to force from the brains of their followers the fact that, according to the Cato Institute, since 9/11, 63% of deaths due to political violence were perpetrated by those with Right leaning ideologies, with only 10% coming from the Left. This could be a moment the administration seizes upon to justify the crackdown it has wanted all along. They will be using unjustified violence to sanction unjustified violence.
As I wrote in my piece after the election, I still have hope for this country, but right now it's a small, local hope. It's the hope of my family and my neighbors, of this charming little city of Saint Paul, of the few Republicans willing to turn down the temperature—Spener Cox, Governor of Utah, has been remarkable through all of this. It's a hope that is kindled by so many of my peers who are deleting social media accounts or taking regular, extended breaks. I don't know how we might grow into our nation's potential, what Rorty called “achieving our country,” but putting down our damn phones and touching grass are going to be necessary conditions.
And as always, we could all use a little metta, that Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, of wishing everyone—from yourself, to your loved ones, to your enemies—the following:
May you be happy.