What does it mean to be an American? Is it nothing more than a place on a map? Is conservative or liberal the only way to generalize who an American is? Is it surviving a shooting event? Earning a golden plaque for sales or followers? Being rude and entitled? Watching every new show on all seventy streaming services? Never missing a concert or game? Gaming or gooning for days? Is it knowing our country is very sick and doing nothing but reading comments online? What about burying our minds into one of the million vices we’re offered here in America?
I don’t know what America is anymore. All I find is the rich flaunting their riches, assassinations, weekly mass shootings, violent political rhetoric, mental illness, corrupt elected officials talking points, trauma from poverty, and digital echo chambers hypnotizing Americans to believe their morality and beliefs are what’s justified in our society. Let’s call it what it is. Gang mentality. Tribalistic. All of it. Still, the reactions to Charlie Kirk’s murder were worse than I imagined. It’s horrifying to see Americans celebrating the assassination of someone exercising their First Amendment right while speaking on a college campus. It’s just as terrifying watching Americans use this as a call to arms to start assassinating “those responsible” for Charlie Kirk’s death.
Is America a country where we silence those we disagree by killing them and justify it because the publicly executed person was “against” us? Have we de-evolved into the past where we need to resort to murder instead of dismantling those we oppose through living our values and winning arguments to prove our perceived enemies wrong?
I wish this would be the last senseless assassination in America, but my fear is this is just the beginning. We’ll blame a man, a weapon, an ideology, but if Charlie Kirk was a liberal, the only difference in our public reaction would be seeing the roles of liberals and conservatives reversed. We need to stop putting political beliefs over what matters, fellow Americans lives.
An American should never kill another American for using free speech. End of story. No if, ands, or buts. If an American is spreading out speech you disagree with or you deem as hateful rather than debate or prove another American wrong, the move is to kill them? That’s tribalistic. Even if the speech is the most hateful, mean-spirited, abhorrent thing you’ve ever heard, as an American we have the right to a wrong opinion. That’s what the First Amendment guarantees. You want to shut that person up? Prove them wrong. Build a movement. Debate. Challenge. Exchange ideas. An American unwilling to engage in dialogue, even if uncomfortable, is not a sign of a healthy person. Once somebody stops listening, it’s impossible to have any perspective.
Hundreds of years from now when everyone alive now is long forgotten, what legacy will we leave behind? One of violence, rage, bloodthirst, and death? How will the future view this time in history? There’s a lot we can’t control. Things often feel hopeless. We can continue down this violent path or find a way to work together and heal. We can’t rely on anyone but ourselves to make a change. This isn’t a cry for more of the same. It’s about who we are as Americans. What are our values? What do we believe in? What do we stand for? What do we fight for? What type of country do you want to live in? What type of American do you want to be?