I saw something I cannot unsee as a result of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Almost everyone I saw who talked about Kirk ether prefaced their discussion, or at some point during their conversation, inserted a common qualifier: “While I don’t agree with everything he said…”. This did not strike me as odd until I did it myself. As I said it, I began to stumble over my words as I realized I had no reason to start a conversation this way. Do I agree with everything he said? Of course not, disagreement among individuals is the norm. Not even close friends will agree on every detail of life. So why then did I feel the need to disassociate myself with someone while paying them respect? Why does there seem to be a cultural norm to put an asterisk on our words when one is talking about another? Even when simply trying to pay respect to one who was unjustly killed?
While I do not yet have an answer to these questions I can say I will do it no longer. I will not be so quick to create a divide with anyone else by prefacing a conversation by dissociating myself with them. That is not how conversation should be started, that is not how trust is built, that is now how kinship is formed. Divide is how society will collapse, and I will participate in it no longer. A great man once said “That’s what is so important to our county, to find our disagreements, respectfully, because when people stop talking that is when violence happens.”