Just this past week, conservative organizer and internet personality Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University while holding a political event. No matter your political leanings or personal beliefs, we should all agree that the assassination of a political figure of this magnitude is and should always be utterly unacceptable in these United States of America.
Regardless of your political ideology, I think it is fair to say that Kirk, only 31, father of two children and a husband, was unjustly killed. Yet, I see people on the internet openly celebrating his assassination. Even around me, I have seen those who, while not openly celebrating, are quietly expressing a sense of satisfaction that an oppositional figure to their political ideals is being killed. This is absolutely incompatible with American ideals.
What is often forgotten is that Kirk’s death is only the most recent event in a string of politically motivated attacks in recent years. In 2017, a gunman fired at least 70 rounds at Republican congressmen Steve Scalise at a Congressional baseball practice. In 2022, a man broke into the house of former Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi and threatened her husband with a hammer. Just this summer, another gunman shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman along with her husband. Now, with Kirk’s death, America takes another step towards normalizing violence.
This is not a problem unique to Republicans or Democrats. This is an American problem. The discourse on both sides of the aisle is so toxic that we can look at a father and husband murdered in cold blood and brazenly celebrate his death on the internet. In the first half of 2025, more than 520 plots of terrorism have occurred, resulting in 96 deaths. Enough is enough — grifters and frauds on both sides are on a race to the bottom as they spew hatred and further divide America. It is time for us to realize that no one actually gains anything from the incitement of hatred except for those who spread it. This is not the America that I grew up in. I grew up in an America where we could be neighbors with those who we disagreed with. I grew up in an America where John McCain could run against Obama in a presidential election but still call him a “decent family man.”
Where is that America now? It lies all but shattered at the feet of vicious gunmen who know no other way to disagree except to kill. It is forgotten by the very politicians who have sworn oaths to defend it. If we, the American people, do not change how we engage with each other, then Charlie Kirk’s killing will not be a lamentable end, but the beginning of a very dark chapter in America’s history.
This is not a time to point fingers. It will get us nowhere to blame each other over the cause of Charlie Kirk’s death. It is not the Democrat’s fault for inciting the ‘radical left’ nor is it the Republican’s fault for failing to act on gun laws. It is the fact that we as a nation can seemingly no longer disagree peacefully on simple issues.
Congressional leaders should consider how they respond to this tragedy carefully, and we here on Tufts campus should be even more mindful of how we act as well. There should be no celebrations or calls for retribution. We need to come together and realize the tragedy and gravity of Wednesday’s shooting. Hating the other side is not going to bring about a better America; only through dialogue can we move forward. Only with compromise can there be peace. I hope that one day I can once again live in an America where disagreement is not expressed at the end of a barrel, and I hope that we are all working to make that happen.
