Reflections On Charlie Kirk
Thoughts from the last two weeks.
It is sometimes hard to fathom how much can happen in the course of one week in our world. An ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza, the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. My brother and I have been doing our best to try and make sense of things and it has honestly been pretty difficult. As long time students of the big assassinations of the 1960s, it has been downright jarring to be living through a political killing such as Kirk’s.
Everyone from every point of view has their thoughts, opinions, hot takes and perspective. Through all the noise I keep coming back to the abject horror of a young man being shot before 3000 people, with the entire world watching on X. A devoted husband and father to two young kids. Like the sadness that any death causes, I have been sick both physically and spiritually from it.
I wanted to share some words that my brother Mike and I wrote from last week, with both Charlie’s death and the 9/11 anniversary fresh on our minds. The world is on fire right now and I can’t even begin to fathom how many people’s eyes have been open to so many different things, at such lighting speed.
Some poignant and moving words from my brother, Mike Jackman, while turning to timeless prose from an often looked to source, Robert F. Kennedy:
Mike Jackman: The ugliness and violence seemingly has become more accepted in our country, or at least we've become more desensitized to it, due to its frequency and never ending coverage. It is sickening and soul crushing. I think we have to remember that the answer to ideas you disagree with is more ideas, more debate and further discussion. Not bullets and violence. Once you step over that line your argument is invalid and our humanity has eroded.
As we arrive on the eve of the 24th anniversary of 9/11, I doubt any of the heroic first responders, brave fire fighters, police or regular citizens who saved and helped others that dark day, gave a shit what the other person's political party of choice or views were. It wasn't even a thought. Remember that.
Nothing ever changes when the cycle of violence is perpetuated and continued. No person deserves to be killed like Charlie Kirk was today and whether you agreed or disagreed or liked him is irrelevant. It's truly shocking to see. This path will continue to drive to the further unraveling of our Republic and demoralization of our society. I am reminded of remarks from 1968 by another public figure who fell to the Mindless Menace of Violence and I share some of them in the hope of introspection and peace.
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"The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by his assassin's bullet.
Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded."
-Robert F. Kennedy
As we do our best to sift through the fire hose of images, video, information and content regarding Charlie’s death, all I ask is that we keep our humanity. I wish to see us do our best to turn the dial down. The power elite who push buttons and pull the levers want nothing more than for everyone to be fighting, distracted, angry, scared and further fragmented. I am not going to take part in it, I refuse, you can too. Spend as much time as you can doing what you love, with the people you love.
Love & Mercy to Charlie Kirk & his family,
-Eric & Mike Jackman
Jackman Radio