By GREG SARBER
It has taken me a couple of days to gather my thoughts on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. After giving it some consideration, I believe that the radical left will very much regret this man’s death.
In the immediate aftermath of his assassination, a few left-wing ghouls expressed joy that Mr. Kirk had died. The leftist blogosphere had some insane commentary, some blaming Charlie for his own murder, some inexplicably blaming President Trump, saying that the president’s previous comments amounted to a threat that forced a violent left-wing response. Only an individual possessed by evil can take joy in another man’s assassination, and by blaming conservatives for the acts of violence committed against them, the leftists are making twists of logic that only a Democrat could understand.
However, Charlie Kirk’s death may become an inflection point in history that will not stop his message; it will work to make the ideas he supported more powerful than ever. Two historical examples illustrate why.
The first example is from the book of Acts in the Bible. Stephen, who is an Apostle of Jesus in the early church, is described as having wisdom and an ability to speak so compellingly that his opponents couldn’t win an argument against him. Stephen sounds a lot like Charlie Kirk. Stephen was considered a threat and was condemned to death by stoning. Stephen is considered the very first Christian martyred for his faith. As he was about to die, Stephen prayed for forgiveness for his executioners.
One man present at his execution was Saul, who was a Pharisee and an avid persecutor of Christians. Soon after the execution, Saul left for Damascus, where he encountered Jesus on the road and underwent a profound transformation in his beliefs, changing his name from Saul to Paul. He became one of the most important members of the church and a man who spread Christianity throughout much of the known world. We would not have a Christian church today were it not for Paul. Who knows how witnessing Stephen’s execution affected him? Perhaps Stephen’s death was God’s plan in action, and perhaps Charlie’s death is also part of God’s plan, in ways that we cannot comprehend right now.
There is also the example of Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War. Before he was assassinated, Lincoln had proposed a generous and non-punitive plan to return the former Confederate states speedily to the United States. His magnanimity demonstrates that when a celebration was held at the end of the war, Lincoln asked the band to play the southern anthem, Dixie, to honor the southern troops that had fought so gallantly.
However, it was not to be. Four days later, Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, and the path of Reconstruction changed radically. The American public was outraged and angered at the South for this act of betrayal. They demanded collective accountability for all southern states because of the act of one lone assassin. The new president, Andrew Johnson, decided that the South should be punished for seceding from the Union and famously remarked that, “Treason is a crime and must be…made infamous, and traitors must be impoverished.” He accomplished all of that and more. The South was occupied by Union troops for over a decade and endured much more onerous terms than they would have received had Lincoln lived.
Charlie Kirk’s death may inspire something similar to these two historical examples. Some on the left may not want to be associated with radicals willing to kill their political opponents and may turn away from them like Saul did. Or perhaps, like in Lincoln’s example, the resolve of the country may harden against the political left. Maybe the public will demand justice and accountability, and reject any politician sympathetic to their radical leftist agenda. It might become unfashionable to support the delusional woke ideas the left has been feeding us.
Kirk’s assassination may accomplish just the opposite of what his murderer intended. Instead of stopping him, maybe his death will hasten the spread of Kirk’s ideas. They would have been far better off by listening to what Charlie had to say instead of killing him.
Greg Sarber is a lifelong Alaskan. He is a petroleum engineer who spent his career working on Alaska’s North Slope. Now retired, he lives with his family in Homer, Alaska. Greg serves as a board member of Alaska Gold Communications, Inc., the publisher of Must Read Alaska.