Dear Editor,
The recent letter on Charlie Kirk’s assassination was deeply troubling. While it stopped short of celebrating his death, it claimed Kirk “reaped what he sowed.” That view is not only cruel but dangerously corrosive.
As Fr. Ren of Good Shepherd Parish in Wayland noted in his weekly newsletter, the most alarming part of tragedies like this is not only the violence itself, but the willingness of ordinary voices to excuse it. When neighbors, classmates or public servants suggest that a man’s murder was deserved, we are staring at a collapse of conscience. Violence is tragic enough; the greater crisis comes when people begin to see it as justified.
Charlie Kirk was polarizing, and his ideas sparked disagreement. But to dismiss his murder as fair punishment is to confuse disagreement with dehumanization. As Fr. Ren reminded us, “the very reason why ‘Thou shalt not kill’ had to be included in the Ten Commandments is because of how quick we humans are to snuff out each other’s lives.” That commandment does not come with exceptions for those whose views we dislike.
Even more chilling is the suggestion that his defense of the Second Amendment makes his death by gunfire “ironic.” That is not irony; it is barbarism dressed up as cleverness. In a free society, the answer to speech we find wrong or offensive is debate, persuasion and truth — not bullets. Abandon that principle, and none of us — left, right, or center — remain safe.
Some call for unity, but there can be no unity if we cannot mourn even the flawed or see our adversaries as human beings worthy of life and dignity. True unity begins when we affirm what Fr. Ren called “the sacredness of life” — the conviction that everyone carries God-given worth, no matter their sins. If we lose that, we lose compassion — and our very humanity.
What also troubles me is how such attitudes shape our youth. A student wrote the letter you printed, and that should give us pause. If young people are already learning to view life as disposable, what kind of foundation are we building? Schools and communities are meant to give children a moral compass and hope.
But if classrooms or the endless scroll of the algorithm teach them that some lives are not worth mourning, then we leave them unmoored. Our children need something higher to aim for: lessons in dignity, mercy and the value of every person.
Charlie Kirk’s legacy can and should be debated. His murder, however, was a moral outrage. To excuse it erodes the line that separates a just society from a mob.
Doug Padden
Thompson Street
