The assassination of Charlie Kirk this week may well go down in history as a turning point for our country. It may lead to political violence like we’ve never known since the Civil War or it may lead us to “disagree better.”
The choice is ours, as Utah Governor Spencer Cox so eloquently observed in the hours following the shooting.
“This is a dark day for our state,” the governor said at a press conference shortly after the shocking event in his state. “It’s a tragic day for our nation,” he said. “Our nation is broken,” he said.
“This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been, and who we could be in better times…”
As the Utah News Dispatch reported, Cox “pointed to the assassination of Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home that prosecutors say was attempted murder, and attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
The Utah Republican acknowledged that his words cannot “unite us as a country” or “fix what is broken.”
“Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken,” Cox said.
“If anyone, in the sound of my voice, celebrated even a little bit at the news of the shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror,” Cox said, “and see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere.”
The governor is right and we must all heed his words — each and every one of us, no matter what we thought of Kirk. All people, regardless of political affiliation, whether they occupy high government office or positions of leadership in political parties or movements, should look to the words of Gov. Cox as a guidepost and check their words and actions accordingly.
Look in the mirror.
Measure your words by the example the Utah Republican has set.
“I think it’s important where we go from here,” he said at the press conference Friday, announcing the arrest of the man who turned himself in to authorities the night before.
“I don’t want to get too preachy, but I think it’s important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what’s happening in our country today,” Cox said.
“This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been, and who we could be in better times… Political violence is different than any other type of violence, for lots of different reasons: One, because in the very act that Charlie championed of expression — that freedom of expression that is enshrined in our founding documents — in having his life taken, in that very act, makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas, that they can speak freely,” Cox said.
“We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about, if we can’t have a clash of ideas safely and securely. Even especially, especially, those ideas with which you disagree. That’s why this matters so much.”
The governor said he’d been as angry as he has ever been in the 48 hours since a bullet ended Kirk’s life.
“And as anger pushed me to the brink, it was actually Charlie’s words that pulled me back,” Cox said. He quoted Kirk.
“He said, ‘The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive, welcome without judgment, love without condition, forgive without limit.’
“He said, ‘Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.’
“A few months ago … Charlie posted to social media:
“‘When things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds, it’s important to stay grounded. Turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember internet fury is not real life. It’s going to be OK.’
“He ends it with: “‘When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to commit violence.’
“He said, ‘What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable agreement, being able to have reasonable agreement where violence is not an option.’
“Now, again, to my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path. Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.
“I think we need more moral clarity right now. I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence. Violence is violence, and there is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable. And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different.”
“We can return violence with violence. We can return hate with hate. And that’s the problem with political violence, is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side.
“At some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.
“These are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now, if this is a turning point for us. We get to make decisions. We have our agency. And I desperately call on every American — Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us — to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me,” Cox said.
He quoted a friend who called him on Friday: “Hope is the virtue that sits between the vices of optimism and pessimism. Hope is the idea that good things are going to happen because we can make them so.”
“I still believe in our country, and I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country. I still believe that there is more good among us than evil, and I still believe that we can change the course of history. I’m hopeful, because Americans can make it so.”
There is nothing more to say.
Read the governor’s words carefully. Then read them again. Then look in the mirror.
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