To the Editor:

I am sorry for the length of this LTTE. The issue is important to us all. Thank you, Martin.

Another tragic, senseless and violent gun death. Of someone with whom I almost always disagreed, Charlie Kirk, 31, who was
just doing what he does in exercising his First Amendment rights on a college campus, was shot and killed. But in this
horrifying instance, more than “thoughts and prayers” were promised by some in vengeful vows of “payback.” Before any facts
were known, the Oval Office assessed “Left” responsibility.

Much of the outpouring of grief was heartbreaking, especially from some young conservatives who admired Kirk’s Christian
Nationalist faith and beliefs. Surely, no sane person would celebrate the death of anyone. But some did, some misguided
Liberals who understandably contested, even despised, his views on race, equality, women’s rights, civil rights, guns, etc.
But many on the Right proved Charlie wrong, too: “Why is it that it’s always the leftist activists, whining and protesting…
and us conservatives, we sit quietly when we hear things we disagree with?” A remarkably disingenuous statement, given the
ensuing threats and vows of vengeance for anyone disputing Kirk’s canonization, ignoring that they, too, have Freedom of Speech.

Commenting on Kirk’s death, conservative celebrity Megyn Kelly said, “We [MAGA, I presume] don’t feel like ourselves…We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama. I just think he was such a slick snake, you know…this affable guy who was like wearing good suits…but was so divisive…He’s the one who started to inject race where no one had been doing it.” How far afield from facts can a person go to gratuitously vent their political spleen?

In the WH, rather than bringing the country together in a tragic circumstance and calling for people to step back for a moment to grieve the loss, and wait and assimilate the facts, Trump immediately took the golden opportunity to churn anger, fear, revenge and retribution against “the Left,” for political points, and called for the death penalty. Facts unknown, but guilt and punishment presidentially determined.

It turns out that the alleged killer was from a steady, MAGA Republican (though assailant Tyler Robinson was “undeclared”) gun family, a Mormon with a youth pastor, an interesting social life, who reportedly did not buy all that Kirk was selling. So, is a gun-loving Republican childhood responsible? Should all Republicans be indicted, as were all Liberals before the facts were known? Is it relevant that Kirk was a firm defender of gun rights, embracing a “few deaths every year” as the price to be paid? What are the lessons from this terrible act and the often-alarming responses?

Like so many shootings, it reveals our increasing national culture of violence, of reciprocal accusations and threats, of venting our worst prejudices, or dividing the country into intolerant, “righteous,” self-wounding armed camps, at a time when the United States is being closely watched by our foreign enemies to see if we will savage each other sufficiently to save them the trouble.

My blood ran cold reading an interview with Trump last Friday, in which he was asked how he was “holding up” after Kirk’s death. “I think very good. And by the way, did you see all the trucks? They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.” Once clear that a Democrat couldn’t be flogged for the murder, Trump moved on to more significant matters.

It will take a different way of looking at each other, a lot of restraint, and commitment to “our sacred honor”, to reverse what appears to be our national suicidal inclinations, recognize that anger Is not argument, and to survive together as a nation. It will take something for which Americans used to be known, stand-up determination and action, as a Nation of Laws.
There are dependable studies available on what mindsets are most likely to be open to violence, if that interests you. Hint: it’s the far-extremes of views, not the larger, rational center.

Kelly Scoles,

Fillmore, CA