Depending on your age, you either know where you were when President John F. Kennedy was killed or, later, where you were when the planes hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Those events, for the generations who experienced them, were a watershed. A “before” and “after.” Two days when the world seemed one way when people woke in the morning but was entirely changed by sundown.
Add to that list now the murder of Charlie Kirk for Generation Z. Members of the always online, hyperconnected generation will never forget where they were Wednesday when they heard that Kirk had been shot on the campus of Utah Valley University and, later, where they were when they learned he had died.
In the intervening moments, they probably also watched the video, captured live by hundreds of students’ camera phones, of Kirk being struck by a single bullet, blood erupting from his throat, and him falling back to the ground. The videos then showed crowds of students running in a thousand different directions, just as they’ve been taught to do in the active shooter drills that have become routine for this generation.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Unlike the JFK assassination, when Americans went outside to yards and streets to share their grief, or the Sept. 11 attacks, when we watched the day’s excruciating events unfold live on cable news, Gen Z went to their phones when Kirk was shot. They texted friends and parents or watched social media accounts try to make sense of the shock of Kirk’s shooting.
While the shooter has not been identified yet, we can reasonably assume that Kirk was killed for what he said and what he believed, the very worst reason to die in a democracy that says it values free speech.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
We can also assume that people of poor character, in this era of influencers and brands, will use this moment to push their own agendas and heighten their “clout,” as the kids say. They will blame someone and try to intensify the atmosphere of outrage that brought us to this point. Many already have.
But before you let those impulses take root in your own mind, first take a moment to understand who Kirk was to many young people and why his assassination has shaken them so deeply.
First and foremost, he was their contemporary in a political space filled with old men and gray beards. He was 31, with a young wife and two small children he often featured on his Instagram page. He also spent the entirety of his professional life talking to young people, online, on social media, on his podcast and at events on college campuses around the country.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
On Wednesday, Kirk was on the first of a 15-stop college tour, one of many he did every year to challenge young people and bring them into the conservative fold. On Wednesday, he sat alone with a microphone under a banner that said, “Prove me wrong,” ready to take any comer.
Earlier college tours had a similar setup, with students arguing against his positions on abortion, transgender rights, reparations for slavery and any other hot-button issue you can think of. In the process of answering, Kirk never changed his own positions but often challenged the audience to think of themselves as more than just kids in a classroom but as voters to be taken seriously.
For young men in particular, Kirk was a rare political voice telling them they were the solution to what’s plaguing the country, not the problem.
In Utah, Kirk was in the familiar posture of offending as many people in the audience as he was bringing over, in this case, answering a question about transgender mass shooters. Then he was gunned down himself.
Within hours, online voices on the right called for a civil war to avenge his death, while others on the left said Kirk had it coming all along for the heated rhetoric he pushed in his own performances. What happens next will define the future of this country.
Let’s start with the leaders we’re electing. Most are good, but the fringe who traffic in disgust, dishonesty or both know who they are. In the hours after Sept. 11, members of Congress, of both parties, spontaneously went to the Capitol steps and joined arms to sing “God Bless America.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Compare that to Wednesday, when they devolved into a shouting match after U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., called for a moment of silence to remember Kirk. When Democrats yelled that she should have asked for one to remember a school shooting in Colorado instead, a Republican congresswoman rushed to accuse Democrats and accuse them of killing Kirk themselves. “You caused this!” she yelled.
Members should do better than that or lose their seats.
We also have to learn how to disagree with each other. Kirk himself was often provocative to the point of offense. He often told audiences during the 2024 campaign, “The left doesn’t just hate Donald Trump. They hate you. And he is just getting in the way.” But he also created a forum for debates and engaged regularly with the media from across the political spectrum. And he spoke to young people in a way that connected with them, even if they opposed what he was saying.
The members of Generation Z have already been saddled with school shootings, student debt, COVID lockdowns, and every other bad thing the world can throw at them, except a new war to fight overseas. They shouldn’t have a war to fight at home instead.
Young people will always remember where they were when Kirk was shot. Let’s also make it the moment that everything changed.
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