Who are we as Americans if violence is the only answer left?

It’s not about whether you agreed with him.

You don’t have to have liked his politics or his style.

You don’t have to share his values, respect his story, his choices, or how he conducted himself.

If you've been on social media, you’ve probably seen one of Charlie Kirk’s videos.

Debating or dunking (depending on how you look at it) on college students with his razor-sharp intellect and debating style, his cocky swagger, and his earnest beliefs.

I loved watching his videos because he was interesting. It’s not about whether I agreed with what he was saying; sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn’t.

It was just fascinating to watch the man at work: he was a mouthpiece for a certain set of political, moral, and religious beliefs that gave me insight into how that population thinks. Many of the people who chose to stand up and debate him also gave me insight into their differing perspectives- why they made their choices, and a lot of what they did or didn’t know.

Sometimes I didn’t agree with either side. But that's not why I was watching. Too often, we exist in our echo chambers and never get exposed to other ideas that challenge us. Make us revisit our belief systems. Affirm them or deny them. Expound upon them. Make them deeper or more resolute.

There were claims that it wasn’t fair - a seasoned debater up against college kids- and he would remind them that he didn’t go to college, and that the kids on campus were voters who would decide the future of America.

He didn’t care who you were; he was open to dialogue and debate and having conversations about values, priorities, and faith. Sometimes he was kind and sometimes he was obnoxious- but he was never crass.

In a time that is increasingly polarizing, we live in a world of extremist camps that stop talking and having conversations about the issues and resort to violence. Yet, Charlie was out there doing his thing, even if I didn’t agree with him all the time.

A bullet in his neck is a bullet to America’s throat. Silencing the idea of healthy debate.

I don’t know what to make of the fact that today is 9/11.

The contrast between the politics and rally around the flag of those days and the consequences of it, nationally and internationally, and the America of today- it's a bit of a whiplash.

America is a society that's churning, trying to right its ship but often overcorrecting.

Good decent people I know saying, “Yeah, he shouldn’t have been shot… but…” - is kinda all you need to know about where America is right now. The acceptance of violence as a legit form of "resistance" in "politically correct circles" has been popularlized by the rise of extremism on college campuses since Oct 7.

And now America is cannibalizing itself. Devouring logic and rationality and spitting out extremism that consumes safety and sanity to the point where everyone feels sick, on every side.

Violence only begets more violence. As a society, we’ve lost the art of the debate, the practice of listening with good faith, of conflict resolution, of seeing each other’s pain, of making amends, of being good neighbors.

You may think that Charlie was part of the solution or part of the problem.

But what comes after shutting down dialogue? What’s left to say when words become so intolerable that we are only left with violence? Murder in cold blood?

What happens when we no longer talk to each other?

As my friend Tzipora said this morning, “The correction for radicalization is connection, humanity, and respect.”

If good people get to the point where they think that assassination is the answer, I think we’ve failed as a society.

9/11 was a moment where outside forces inserted themselves in our sense of safety and values and tried to destroy it.

Charlie Kirk’s assassination is symbolic of American society destroying themselves from within.

Who are we as Americans if violence is the only answer left?

We came together on 9/11 in the face of tragedy. Now the country is splitting apart.