Considering Charlie Kirk

I regret the need to begin this with the obvious fact that there is no excuse, no rationale whatsoever, for murder. Period, full stop.  In this country, there has always been some degree of disgusting, vile, or hateful political rhetoric. Those of conflicting political views may disagree on what specific speech should be characterized as hate speech, but due to the First Amendment, hate speech itself is not illegal.

The Nazis with their flaming torches, their revolting swastika flags, chanting vile, racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic slurs have as much legal right to parade through Charlottesville, VA (home to a significant African American population) or Skokie, IL (home to a significant population of Jewish families including survivors of the Holocaust) as you or I do to march in support of our preferred political party or candidates.

I despise them for it, but I grit my teeth and grudgingly bear it. As the proud son of a WWII veteran who served from Guadalcanal to occupied Japan, the proud son-in-law of a survivor of the Nazi death camps, and as a proud Viet-Nam era US Marine, I am compelled to acquiesce to these examples of revolting speech by the United States Constitution to which I swore an oath of allegiance as an 18-year-old.

 We live in a society that makes icons of both gun-totin’ cowboys and outlaws but has no understanding of what our founders intended when authorizing a “well-regulated militia”. No one I ever deer hunted with required a weapon of war. But when a disordered nihilist or emotionally-damaged individual in a society awash in guns is fed a steady diet of hate and grievance by media practitioners for profit and power, it is sadly predictable that eventually murderous violence will erupt in our homes, in the town square, in our churches and temples, in our colleges, and most ghastly – even in our elementary schools.

So now we come to the murder of Charlie Kirk, which, for me, is a kaleidoscope of sadness. Nothing can match the sadness of a wife losing a husband and of children losing a father to murder. That Charlie’s widow heroically rose above her pain and grief to offer forgiveness to his murderer humbles us all. Another sadness is that her exemplary display of faith and humanity was ignored by those who would use Charlie’s death to make political hay as if political violence was the exclusive hallmark of one political party, when facts and statistics contradict that calumny.

Perhaps the greatest sadness associated with Charlie Kirk’s murder will come when his children read some of their late father’s own words from the April 5, 2023, event sponsored by the religious arm of his conservative group Turning Point USA. “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” I truly hope they find comfort somewhere in the biblical wisdom found in Galatians 6:7, which states, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows".

The radical right Christian nationalists, for political gain, are now attempting to sanitize Charlie’s beliefs on the road to his canonization. The words we use matter. Charlie was not a martyr.  He did not proactively surrender his life for his beliefs. He was a murder victim, plain and simple – as if that wasn’t catastrophic enough. He was a victim, not of a divided nation but of a nation being divided.

 Most Americans agree on most things: lower prices for better health care, staying out of wars if we can and supporting our troops (and foreign allies) if we can’t, more cops on the beat not tanks in the street, welcoming hardworking immigrants to compensate for our falling birth rate and grow our workforce for the future, being on the cutting edge of scientific, medical, and technology breakthroughs, (which take place in research facilities and universities), fair, honest, and transparent elections.  The vote difference between the major parties in the last presidential election was less than 2%. Yet, via ubiquitous social media, we are fed minor, shiny objects of distraction with fiery invective.

The purveyors of distrust, disbelief, conspiracy, grievance, and, yes, hate find it hard to make a buck promoting the truth of our common beliefs. The billionaire media and technology titans already know what most of us ignore: that turmoil and division, like war, is good for business.  Mainstream professional journalism hasn’t been perfect (think the Easter-egg hunt for absent WMDs), but it surely never produced the uneducated, fact-deprived, current cast of podcast wackos using intelligence-insulting gibberish to sell us fantastical conspiracies, quack medicines, and neighborly distrust.

Now the Sarasota County Commissioners have unanimously voted to rename a portion of a major road for podcaster Charlie Kirk to show “respect for what he stood for,” though a resolution is still needed to request state approval. Manatee County has followed suit and State Rep. Kevin Steele (R-Dade City) filed a bill to financially punish public universities and colleges for not falling in the same line. For those who may not be aware of what Charlie Kirk “stood for” and what he was profitably selling to the youth culture online and on college campuses, here are some of his views. These are his words, not mine.

On Race

“Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 19 May 2023

“If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024

“If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 3 January 2024

“… You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 13 July 2023

On immigration

“America was at its peak when we halted immigration for 40 years and we dropped our foreign-born percentage to its lowest level ever. We should be unafraid to do that.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 22 August 2025

“The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show,1 March 2024

On Politics & Religion:

“The American Democrat party hates this country. They wanna see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 20 March 2024,

“Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
Source: Charlie Kirk, social media post, 8 September 2025

“There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication, it’s a fiction, it’s not in the constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists.”
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 6 July 2022

On Feminism & Taylor Swift:

(She’s) “not a great role model for young women, to wait all the way until you're 35 and just put your career first. Engage in reality more and get outside of the abstract clouds. Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge. “
Source: The Charlie Kirk Show, 26 August 2025

If you want your county to reject or memorialize these views, I urge you to attend future county commission meetings to make clear what messages you want sent, on your behalf, to potential tourists, businesses considering opening or relocating here, and maybe give a thought to the values you want to instill in our children.  And remember who voted for what when the next election comes around.

Dr. Paul Powers is a management psychologist, internationally published author, and screenwriter.