First of all, I offer my condolences – not just to Charlie Kirk’s family but also to the many people from our neighboring area who felt a special kinship with him because of his Arlington Heights/Prospect Heights/Wheeling High School childhood.

But beyond that, over the last few days I’ve been watching events unfold, and have been watching commentary unfold on X, Facebook, and in the news, and see how quickly people seem to tie this horrible event to their favorite cause.

I’m sorry, but…

…this is not a time to call for “gun safety legislation” – based on what we know, he was shot by a kind of hunting rifle that is permitted in many countries with otherwise strict gun control.

…this is not a time to decry “violence,” blandly, generically, and tie Kirk’s killing in with school shootings or the like.  It is different.  It was a political assassination.

…this is also not about mental illness; there is no indication that the killer suffered from schizophrenia or anything similar.

Instead, what this is, is a moment to reflect.

As a candidate for Illinois State House, I hope not to let anger about some political issue or another get the better of me, and I would hope family and friends would call me to account if needed.

But consider the rhetoric we constantly hear: We’re told we need to “save democracy” by electing the slate of candidates of our choice.  We’re told by politicians and activists and influencers on both sides of the partisan divide that “the other side” does not just have policies with which they disagree but is evil, fascist, and/or communist and wants to kill innocent women and children (whether by cutting funding for government spending programs, or via unwillingness to imprison criminals, take your pick).  This is wrong, and we should stop doing it. We cannot expect to solve our problems (of which there are many) when we no longer engage with each other, when we are in fact no longer willing to see the other side.

Charlie Kirk was an exception. Not everybody liked his political positions, but he sought not to demagogue but to engage with his political opponents by debate.  Whether his killer had as a tangible objective, the shutting down of his dialoging with others, or simply was angry at his words, we don’t yet know.

But the way to honor him is to continue his mission.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlie_Kirk_(54507064098)_(cropped).jpg; Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons