Last year on September 10, I was working in my mess of an office (I pretend it brings me closer to our beloved founder) in Midtown Manhattan. Sometime after 2 p.m., I heard that Charlie Kirk had been shot. I got a few texts about it — disbelief and shock.
I stopped to pray and encouraged everyone else to do so as well. The moment called for it. And it came so shortly after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minnesota, on August 27, during which two children had been killed: ten-year-old Harper Moyski and eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel. That’s another anniversary that should be properly commemorated. We should all be praying for our schoolchildren and their teachers.
I had a few exchanges with Charlie over the years — always good, albeit brief. I was especially fond of his awareness of the conservative movement’s history. But I didn’t really follow him closely because of my low tolerance for Trump rallies. And I wasn’t Kirk’s audience — he was speaking to the young, which I had already ceased to be. He seemed a good man who loved God, his family, and his country: the important things.
I’m still embarrassed to admit, however, that it wasn’t until he was murdered that I took the time to really appreciate his work. That evening — a year ago tonight — I sat at my computer and watched videos of Kirk deep into the morning. Once I started I couldn’t stop. This is how you do it. This is how you make an argument. This is how you speak the truth in love. The next day, I ended up writing about and suggesting some of his clips.
It has been a long year for the Kirk family, his close friends, and his collaborators. Continue to keep them in your prayers. Erika Kirk lost her husband, the father of her children, and had to grieve under the judgmental eye of the public.
Reach out to someone today who doesn’t share your politics. Maybe someone you love. Because there is so much more to life than politics. It is important. Loving people even when you disagree with them makes such a difference.