After last week’s assassination of Charlie Kirk, the conservative podcaster who had built a large following among college students and other young people, it was not hard to find predictions that violence against politicians and prominent opinion makers would increase.
That’s certainly the trend. Twice in 2024, armed men took aim at President Trump. One wounded him in the ear in Pennsylvania, while another gunman, tracking Trump while he was playing golf in Florida, was caught before he could fire.
And this past June, a so-called “doomsday prepper” killed a Minnesota legislator and her husband in their home, and wounded another lawmaker and his wife. The suspect allegedly had a hit list of 45 people, all of them Democrats.
This is not how a free society is supposed to work. The time-tested laws and traditions of our democracy give people the right to speak their piece. Everyone is allowed to state their opinion. These opinions can be hostile and even insulting, but the speakers and writers still are entitled to contribute to America’s marketplace of ideas. And those who disagree are entitled to respond — just not with weapons.
The problem is not that people are giving their opinions. And the problem is not that people are bound to disagree with certain opinions. The problem is with people who are motivated to go on the attack just because they don’t like what someone else says or thinks.
Kirk is a good example. Some reports about his death described him as an “online provocateur.” That’s accurate to a degree: He was a smart man who was willing and able to provoke people while presenting his side of a debate. But none of that gives anyone the right to kill him. Nor should it encourage anyone to do so.
Too many Americans have become intolerant of other opinions. While only a minimally small percentage of these people resort to violence, it’s still happening far too often, and it’s creating divisions that are dangerous for our country.
The first solution is for everyone to calm down. Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them evil.
Next, it might help to remember what those in the past did when someone they loved and admired suffered.
Matt Friedeman, a religion writer whose columns appear on the Magnolia Tribune website as well as the Enterprise-Journal’s, made the excellent point that in our 24/7 news cycle, “those who get the news out quickly with the most detail win, so rare are the initial voices afforded opportunity to think deeply before speaking. And in this paradigm, what we say first is usually disappointing.”
He noted that the Bible is full of ancient events — the crucifixion of Jesus, the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr — where followers responded by doing the exact opposite of spouting the furious revenge-minded diatribes so often seen and heard today.
Instead, Friedeman writes, Christians simply spread the Word. “The Gospel swept the Roman Empire in the wake of such moral and spiritual fiber,” he wrote. “The Church didn’t slow because one of their own brutally died.”
That is the way for all sides to proceed. Argue, debate, take a stand, think deeply — and then let it rest. Let it sink in. If you’re right, a majority ultimately will agree with you.
Will this happen? Can we calm down? Truthfully, the answer must be — maybe. Being honest, there are few signs of reasonable disagreement regaining its place in the public sphere. But the alternative is chaos and more deaths like Charlie Kirk’s. We are a better country than that.
— Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
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CORRECTION: An Aug. 30 editorial about mail-in election ballots gave the inaccurate impression that no voters in Mississippi are allowed to cast a ballot in advance of an election. While the state does not permit no-excuse advance voting, it does allow the practice for several exceptions. These include for people who will be away from home on election day for any reason, anyone age 65 or older, or anyone with a physical disability who is unable to vote in person without substantial hardship. Advance voting for any reason also is allowed on the two Saturdays before an election.
