The world is definitely coming unglued. September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk is murdered by what one can only assume is a trained marksman in front of a crowd of over 3,000 people. At the time of this writing, his killer has not been caught.
I'll speak plainly here. I didn't like Charlie Kirk. I found his polemical methods offensive, his party obsequiousness disturbing, and his message too comfortable with nationalistic ideals.
However, he was a brave man. It is an uncommon person who willingly steps into the debate arena with crowds of thousands who oppose you. To his credit, he never shied from a question, and unlike many in his party, I think he was a true believer.
I can respect bravery. I can respect someone for faith in their chosen cause, if not the cause itself. And that's the crux of it. We are the land of the free, and everyone has the right to speak their mind, even if others find it distasteful. Just because someone speaks doesn't mean anyone has to listen. We've become far too polarized, and we're drawing American blood with our infighting.
This is not the way. Because if it is, we have consigned ourselves to failure. There is nothing more savory to those who wish us ill than to see us at our own throats. Political violence must never become a ready option.
There is a portion of the trivium we are failing to apply. Language and rhetoric are everywhere, heated and vile, but where has all the logic gone?
Killing another because you disagree with their ideas is the most un-American thing one can do. Using the death of an activist to point fingers at the opposition has, unfortunately, become the norm. This too must cease. No one wins in this scenario; it just begets more violence.
Like him, or like me not, Charlie Kirk was an American, and his death has served no one save those who would love to see a post-American world. So be mindful of your words. Fan not the flames of hate and dissension, lest you do the devil's work for them.
If you were his friend, support his family. No one should lose their husband or father for speaking their mind. If you were his opponent, then respect he was a fellow American and that no one should take one of ours for practicing his freedoms.
Remember, united we stand. Divided, we fall.
- Michael Lauderdale
Editors’ Note: I believe Michael has every right to his measured, even misguided attempt to stay “middle of the road.” However, I felt I had to give my own two cents on this matter. The line “divided we fall” would mean a lot more if it had been preached when Charlie Kirk was alive and making a career out of dividing people. Here are just a few examples of the things he said; this list is far from complete:
On the Civil Rights Act of 1964 / Martin Luther King Jr.
“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.”
Context: Said at AmericaFest in December 2023, where he claimed the Act created a “permanent DEI-type bureaucracy.” (Wired)
On banning gender affirming care
“We must ban trans-affirming care — the entire country. Donald Trump needs to run on this issue.”
Context: Broadcast appearance, calling for a nationwide ban. (Media Matters)
On “acceptable” gun deaths as a cost of preserving the Second Amendment
“I think it’s worth 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.”
Context: TPUSA Faith event in 2023, arguing that deaths are a necessary sacrifice to preserve gun rights. (The Guardian)
When Charlie Kirk said gun deaths were “an acceptable cost,” he set a standard: human lives, including children, could be sacrificed for ideology. He likely never imagined his own life would be added to that statistic, but by his own words, deaths like his were worth it.
So no, I don’t feel guilty for not mourning him. My grief is reserved for the children killed in classrooms, the trans youth stripped of healthcare, and the communities he built a career on trying to marginalize.
You don’t get to cheer when he dismissed dead children as “the cost of freedom” and then demand tears when he became part of that cost.