Day 336 – Where Do We Speak If Not Here

On January 17, 1969, a young man age 26 was shot along with fellow organizer John Huggins inside Campbell Hall at UCLA during a Black Student Union meeting. His name was Bunchy Carter, and he was the Southern California chapter president of the Black Panther Party. Later it would be determined that this assassination was carried out by fellow members amid disagreements, but that conclusion would be disputed. It is worth looking into, as controversy surrounds the police and federal response. Whatever the reason, this marked the only time that I know in the history of the United States that a famous political activist was shot on a university campus.

Until today.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of his own movement and organization called Turning Point USA, was assassinated while speaking at one of his events at Utah Valley University. We will not know for a while what the motive behind the shooting was, but I felt a deep sadness come over me at the thought that a person focused on political discourse would be shot and killed, of all places, on a university campus. This is the place where discourse is supposed to happen, and if not there, then where.

There have been many assassinations in the course of our history, and often those have had generational impacts, and I am pretty sure this one will as well. It is a sad day when a young man, in the very act of exercising his free speech rights, is gunned down. Regardless of political viewpoint, this is sad beyond measure.

When I was a young man, I became enthralled by the speaking ability of Malcolm Little, otherwise known as Malcolm X. I memorized a few of his speeches, and when I was young you would rarely be able to hear the audio or even see a video of him speaking. However, I found a few, and although I did not understand some of his arguments, I did understand his passion and his purpose and his dedication. He was a fiery intellectual, bold and brave enough to take a stand, and willing to recognize where he might be wrong. He too was gunned down while speaking in public. Like Charlie Kirk, he was loved by many, but hated and despised by many more. He had followers, but he also had dissenters. He was controversial by design because he sought to bring about a fundamental change in thinking.

I will probably get yelled at for making this comparison, but regardless of political belief, I admire people like this. I hold them in the same regard. The ones who are outspoken, willing to defend their thinking in the court of public opinion, willing to attempt to challenge the way people think, and to ask questions and encourage debate. Sadly, there are elements of our society that cannot tolerate this, and therefore they often die young, and so they have.

Bunchy was 26. Charlie was 31. Medgar Evers was 37. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both 39. Bobby Kennedy and Huey Long were 42, and Harvey Milk was 48. Of course, there are many others, not including the United States Presidents who were assassinated in office. Only two of these have ever occurred on a college campus, and so today is a dark day. In a land that has always prided itself on a culture built on defending the rights and freedoms of people to speak their minds, and on the grounds of the very institutions where we are supposed to defend that culture, a shot rang out and ended the life of one who dared to speak.

I have not cried for a while, but today when I saw that headline, I did. I shed tears, not just for Charlie Kirk and his family, but for the soul of this country and the heart of its people.