Credit to KSL News Media

Tent where Charlie Kirk was shot. WikiMedia Commons, no adjustments made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Charlie Kirk’s assassination is yet another tally on the ever-growing list of deaths caused by political radicalization.  On September 10, at 3 p.m. Eastern time, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and right-wing activist, was shot in the neck during one of his routine college events. By 4 p.m., it was announced that he had succumbed to his injury and passed away.

Following the assassination attempt and news of his death, a wide range of opinions have been voiced by the public on social media, with many people, typically conservatives, calling the event a tragedy and urging others to respect the name of the deceased campaigner. Other voices, mainly progressives, have emerged to argue quite the opposite, saying that Charlie Kirk had fallen victim to the very thing he sought to fight for, labeling the assassination as an ironic end to the gun-rights advocate. 

While the debate still rages on between both sides over whether or not his death was preventable and who is to blame for this tragedy, the two parties have yet to see eye-to-eye and discuss the real culprit of this violence. Kirk’s death was simply another iteration of this country’s centuries-long plague of political radicalization.

No less than an hour after the news broke, Kirk’s assassination was swiftly turned into a political message from both sides of the aisle, and his death has been attributed to either another victim of gun violence or a justification for Republicans’ disdain towards progressives. These two points, while not wholly incorrect, leave out the blatant, disparaging truth that this tragedy has been the culmination of both sides and their inability to cooperate or see their opponents as anything other than an evil blight on America. 

Political violence is not exclusive to one party, from political officials like Donald Trump or John F. Kennedy, to simply people speaking about their beliefs like Charlie Kirk and Medgar Evers. This history of influential characters being murdered for their viewpoints is far too large to point at one group and label them as the cause of our issues here as a country. 

Political radicalization has driven this country into a state of paranoia and malice. When we begin to see fellow human beings as obstacles and view neighbors as threats, it signifies that the feet of our country already stand dangerously close to the edge of collapse. Intolerance cannot be allowed, and the slaughter of any people, regardless of political beliefs, can not be justified if we are to uphold values of decency and empathy. From Utah Valley University to our own high school of Francis Howell North, it is more important than ever to lower the rhetoric and not fan the flames of this blaze that will incinerate our nation if we aren’t careful.