To the Editor:

Martin, I had hoped to move on to another subject, but so much has occurred that it is still timely. I apologize for the
lack of clarity in last week’s LTTE.

If the shooter, Tyler Robinson, had been raised an ardent Democrat, you would have easily found that fact a “fair” and
significant consideration in assigning motivation for the murder. But, “until a year or so ago,” Tyler was a religious MAGA
gun enthusiast. So, to make the murder of a conservative icon politically useful, the Right morphed the tragedy, with no
evidence, into an attack motivated by Left-wing radicalization, consistent with Trump’s instant decision, without facts,
that it was a crime of “the vicious Left.”

As of Tuesday morning, no such Left-wing connection has been discovered. From the information gathered, it appears the Tyler
was angry with Kirk for his derision of Trans people, of which his possibly romantic roommate was one. Without additional
evidence, his motive appears to have had a personal, and not political, context.

The Democrats have generally calmed down, now that they are not being accused of being evil forces bent on destruction of
the country. Not so the Republicans. Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, Lord Voldemort Miller, announced that Leftist organizations he
presumed responsible for the tragedy were a “vast domestic terror movement.” He promised to “destroy those networks and make
America safe again…and we will do it in Charlie’s name.” Not for justice, for political juice and revenge.

FBI director, Kash Patel, who looked like a cornered warlord without a sword, cockeyed and spewing false facts and
inappropriately released evidence, first vowed allegiance to Trump, then intense retribution for the Left-wing groups
“responsible” for the murder. Facts again immaterial.

At the funeral, Charlie’s Kirk’s widow brilliantly asked that the death penalty not be applied to the assailant, and offered
forgiveness to him, because “he [Charlie] wanted to save young men.” A worthy issue for another discussion. I will follow
her progress.

Trump distanced himself from Kirk’s extolled “capacity to love.” “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie: I hate my opponents
and I don’t want the best for them,” and repeatedly but nonspecifically railed against “nasty” political violence coming
from the “Radical Left.” No sign of presidential responsibility to bring our nation together, or of Christian values.

In a ceremony of remembrance and farewell, Trump’s eulogy was all about his own tawdry, negative impulses. The President of
the United States made it clear that he has no interest in bringing this nation together, or in fairly treating citizens in
a democracy who disagree with or criticize him, and that he will throw gasoline on a national fire to try and warm his
heart. To what dark place are we headed?

Lord Voldemort’s eulogy bore an astonishing resemblance to a speech, given by Nazi Josef Goebbels in Berlin on July 2, 1932, on the death of young Storm Trooper, Horst Stessel, that hailed him as a martyr whose death would initiate a “fire in our
hearts, and that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot understand.” “We are the storm,” he plagiarized.
Voldemort used Nazi rhetoric to turn the funeral into a rally for Trump’s war on “the Left.” Charlie’s critics treated his
death with more regard.

I disagreed with his statements of racism, misogyny, and transphobic disdain, etc. But one of Charlie’s firm convictions was
tragically prescient. He insisted that some gun deaths every year, including schoolkids or college speakers, are just the price required to maintain Second Amendment gun rights. His own death, “just a fact of life” in America. But I hope he would
not have invoked the furies of doomsday fascist propaganda.

Kelly Scoles,

Fillmore, Ca