Charles James Kirk - just Charlie - was killed, nee assassinated, as he lived. Promoting his political beliefs, sharing his walk with his Savior, being kind to the curt.
We all know he founded an organization called Turning Point. The best way to honor Charlie would be if we took this moment to bring our divided and damaged nation to a turning point - with a call to our better angels.
The Left and Media say, "it's rancor from both sides", to proclaim a moral equivalency, while really promoting their smug moral superiority. But it isn't the same Left and Right.
You can walk down any street in America with a Clinton or Gore or Obama cap on and be left alone. How many would dare wear a MAGA hat in a big blue city or on a college campus? Better be sure your medical insurance is paid up before you do.
You can say in the workplace of a major corporation that you're a Liberal with no impact. Say you voted for Trump in the same place and you're likely not getting hired, or promoted, and could find yourself unemployed.
Does that sound hyperbolic?
Here's an example from just this week. Just this week, a major bank refused to open an account for a conservative political campaign here in Arizona. De-Banking for conservatives is real, continuing and pervasive. First hand knowledge.
So when the bright light of Charlie Kirk is snuffed out, can you blame one side for being mad? I'm mad. Really mad!
There is no Left-equivalent to Charlie, but perhaps the closest is AOC. What would be happening if AOC were murdered? How many broken windows, firebombed cars, looted stores would we see? (...during mostly peaceful protests, of course...)
So what to do with this anger? How can we prove "we're better"? -- BY BEING BETTER.
When MLK was fallen by an assassin's bullet in 1968, cities across the country burned...except Indianapolis.
Robert Kennedy was there that balmy April night, and spoke to an inner-city Black street gatheriing, delivering the awful news. He encouraged the crowd for grace in a time of grief, quoting from Aeschylus, “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
RFK continued, "What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another...So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family."
If the Right - which includes me - wants to proclaim superiority, then it's up to the Right to be superior.
Rather than excoriating those on the Left, break bread or lift a glass with a new friend who thinks differently than you do. We're all children of the same God.
Charlie would and did think the same. Honor his death by following his example in life, with a willingness to interface with kindness to those on the other side.
Turn the other cheek, so we can have a turning point in our troubled nation.
Better angels... we need you now.
Tim Mooney is a conservative political consultant.
The best way to honor Charlie is to come to Jesus.
Turning the other cheek is for individual Christians, not for entire groups as a whole. No, I'm not advocating BLM style riots. But people who want the US to remain a Republic as the founding fathers envisioned it have to dismantle the terrorist organization that is now the twisted heart of the Democratic party. This is our fourth turning.