“Give me liberty, or give me death,” are the immortal words of Patrick Henry spoken on March 23, 1775, to the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, Va. His impassioned words were a call to arms against British tyranny.
Today, some 250 years later, we remember these words.
We should also remember that Charlie Kirk was wearing a simple white t-shirt with the word “Freedom” printed across its front when a murderer took his life.
Charlie, the founder of Turning Point USA, was seated outside under a white canopy with the words “Prove Me Wrong” printed on the sides on Utah Valley University’s grounds in Orem, Utah. Hundreds of students were in front and around him on a beautiful September afternoon. He had a microphone in his hand and was openly debating or simply conversing with each person who’d signed up and waited for their moment with Charlie.
Not long before his murder, someone asked Charlie: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
Charlie quickly replied with a clarifying question: “Counting or not counting gang violence?”
This was not a dodge. He asked this question to cut away misinformation, as gun-control advocates—such as many mainstream-media members—like to cite the Gun Violence Archive’s (GVA) numbers, which claim that the U.S. sees about 600 mass-murder events annually. But to inflate this enormous statistic, GVA adds in a lot of gang wars and other nonrandom crimes. This is almost never explained by those who cite GVA’s bloated statistics.
This is an important distinction, as how can we hope to solve a complex problem without breaking it down honestly? Solving gang violence, after all, requires very different solutions than stopping mass murderers.
Such honesty, grounded by his faith, was how Charlie stayed whole during the hours of intense debates with all-comers. This is also how his widow, Erika Kirk, humbled a nation with her strength and courage, also grounded by her faith, to forgive.
As Charlie espoused, it is not strong to blame innocent people for the crimes of others. It is not strong to wrongly blame a critical human freedom—the right to defend your life—for the evil actions of a few. Doing that is intellectually weak. Worse, it is cowardly, as it disempowers the good in the face of evil.
We cannot surrender our honesty now. We cannot surrender our freedom to those who would control us because someone succumbed to evil.
There have been so many moments in which people have shown they understand how critical it is for us to stand for our freedom as Charlie did.
In just one example, Turning Point USA says 5,000 of Charlie Kirk’s “Freedom” t-shirts were handed out before an Oregon-Penn State University game last September. This is a home game in which spectators wear all-white as part of Penn State University’s “White Out” tradition. The Oregon Ducks, which won the game 30-24, were Kirk’s favorite team, and Charlie had been scheduled to attend the game. So, some portion of the more than 100,000 in attendance wore Charlie’s “Freedom” t-shirt. A loud “USA!” chant even rose from the crowd as they waited in the parking lot for shirts.
We are, in some measure, a nation struggling to overcome division made worse by a lack of honesty from too many in the media and politics. Charlie, however, showed us that respect, an understanding of our rights and the courage and integrity to voice them peacefully is the only way through such divisive times.
