By Bob Gaydos
The headline says it all. All, that is, on which we all can agree.
I stayed out of the Kirk killing maelstrom over the weekend because I learned early on in my 23 years of writing daily newspaper editorials that its really important to have all the facts at hand before offering an opinion. Newspaper publishers used to insist on it. It kept them from being embarrassed or sued.
Times have changed. The Internet, social media, Trump, MAGA have all made timing more important than truth. Get your message out quickly to control the narrative. Spin. Lie. Distort. Grab on to rumors and hope for the best.
And now we know certain things. Ill try to keep it brief because Im as tired of the chaos as I think most of you are and the Epstein files have still not yet been released, lest we forget.
We know Charlie Kirk was a young man who founded a group called Turning Point, USA and made a fortune with a podcast promoting Trumps MAGA agenda and holding debates with other young people challenging them to prove me wrong. Of course, no one ever proved him wrong, but his debate opponents did offer him an opportunity to spread his right wing, misogynistic, divisive Christian nationalist message to other young people. He opposed abortion and spread false information during the Covid crisis. He described empathy as a made up term and waste of time, especially when applied to victims of mass shootings because they were the price needed to pay for a Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Ironically, Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of killing Kirk in Utah, a state that allows the carrying of firearms openly on college campuses, which is where the shooting occurred during a "Prove me wrong debate. Despite Kash Patels claim that the FBI did a great job in tracking and arresting Robinson, we know it was the young mans father who turned him in. After several days of wild speculation on motive and attempts by Trump, ever divisive, and other MAGA Republicans to blame Democrats, it was reported that Robinson was raised in a conservative Republican household and was introduced to firearms at a young age. He was also active on rightwing gaming and social media sites. He is on special watch status in jail. We know all this.
We also know that violence of any sort has no place in political debate and that, while both liberal and conservative actors have been responsible for political violence in this country, the great majority have come from the conservative side.
We know who Charlie Kirk was through his own words. He left a history. No need to tiptoe or whitewash. Nor is it time to call for retribution. No, this is the time to call for calm debate, a lessening of violent political rhetoric, a review of gun control laws and, yes, empathy for the family, especially the children, of Charlie Kirk.
We know all of this, and yet all we really know for sure right now is that Charlie Kirk is dead.
Prove me wrong.
