Political Violence Has No Place in Our Country
It should only be reserved for the poor countries we plunder and bomb to pieces.
Yesterday at work, I went on lunch break with two colleagues. The usual casual chatter suddenly swerved: Did you hear Charlie Kirk got killed? My friends gasped: Oh my God, really? How? Where? I replied: There’s a video of it, you didn’t see? No, show me! — they demanded in unison.
I pulled out my phone, that infamous device carrying death, blood, and the breathless children whose limbs I’ve seen dangling from walls these past two years, and searched for a video of Charlie Kirk’s execution. I roll it, and both of my colleagues gasp in horror.
Oh my God, Miranda, that’s horrible! Oh my god, you didn’t warn me, it’s so graphic and horrific, I’m going to be sick — one of them comments.
Why? I ask her. Haven’t you seen blown-up children and their limbs severed for the past two years? What’s so horrific about this one, after seeing tiny bodies being blown to pieces or riddled with 335 bullets in a small 6-year-old body?
Yeah, I did," she answers, but it wasn’t graphic like this, she says. It wasn’t this gory that you see blood popping out of his veins like this, she says.
I stand in horror at her horror, and all I can muster is — ARE YOU SERIOUS?
For reference, this is an amazingly kind, great human being. Probably one of the kindest souls I've ever encountered. My shock at her shock is palpable.
I pull out my phone again, the one that holds about 60,000 pictures and videos of severed limbs of Palestinian children, women, men, PEOPLE, and I show her. I roll through the videos of blown-apart limbs, children lying on the cold hospital floor screaming for parents who will never come, surgeries without anesthesia because Israel denied it to maximize death, frantic international doctors rushing to treat the endless stream of broken bodies.
She’s watching, but not in the same horror as she watched Charlie Kirk’s blood spray from his neck. She didn’t grasp at Palestinian children like she did watching Charlie’s death. She confirms it’s terrible, but doesn’t say it’s much worse than watching a white man taken out.
Why did I say white here? I don’t know, you tell me? What difference does he hold, that of those children, women, and men being brutally taken out for the past 700 + days?
Substack doesn’t let me post the most gruesome videos of limbs severed on the hospital floor, or limbs stuck in the rubble, so this is the best I could do here. But I showed her the most violent ones, and she informed me that — yes, this is horrible too, but that video of Charlie was too graphic and uncomfortable.
This is an empathetic person. This is a kind person. So why is it that people in the West seem coded not to feel the same anguish when darker skin bleeds, when bullets pierce darker bodies, as they do when it’s white skin violently bleeding? How do we explain this phenomenon — this failure to grieve for people who live over there somewhere, even as it is our bombs, our governments, our money that make their suffering possible?
Islamophobia is the most successful gaslight of all time, working so well on our psyche that we aren’t even aware what has been done to us.
The number of people who messaged me to comment on news about Charlie Kirk being killed, the ones that I haven't spoken to for 2 years, the ones that stayed away from my inbox like it’s a plague that will burn their eyes if they look at the content I have been posting for 2 years — it’s … I have no word to insert actually.
IT’S.
I feel so defeated, knowing you could exist and find the way to explain this to yourselves.
It’s hard to breathe knowing that the graphic murder of a white man will move you to speak out, whether you stand with him politically or against him — while the mounting piles of children, and let’s stop saying only children here, because women and men deserve equal treatment in the realm of humanity we must demand for everyone on this earth, somehow don’t move you. All this while you know full well that it’s your money paying for the bombs that maul them to death.
Seeing what the American politicians wrote on Twitter in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death was a perfect coordination of hypocrisy, a dance only this country could choreograph so well.
Barack Obama wrote on X, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
Joe Biden wrote on X, “There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.”
Kamala Harris wrote on X: “I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, "We ask everyone to pray for him and his family. This is detestable what's happened. Political violence has become all too common in American society, and this is not who we are. It must stop.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on X before the announcement of Kirk's death, "There is no place in our country for political violence. Period, full stop."
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X. "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X: "Political violence has no place in America. This shooting is horrifying, and I’m praying for Charlie Kirk and his family."
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote before the announcement of Kirk's death: "The scourge of gun violence and political violence must end. The shooting of Charlie Kirk is the latest incident of this chaos, and it must stop. We cannot go down this road."
George W. Bush issued a statement, saying: "Violence and vitriol must be purged from the public square. Members of other political parties are not our enemies; they are our fellow citizens."
Bill Clinton said in a social media post: "I hope we all go through some serious introspection and redouble our efforts to engage in debate passionately, yet peacefully."
Political violence must stop. We need to debate passionately, yet peacefully. Political violence has no place in our country. It should only be reserved for the poor countries we plunder and bomb to pieces. Violence should be reserved for negotiating teams in Iran, whom we bomb on the last day of peaceful negotiations, or Qatar, while we called upon them to negotiate a ceasefire solution with us. Political violence should absolutely never, ever be home again!
Excellent, and raising awareness of Islamophobia starts with writing like this and then discussing it. There is work to be done, but it can and must be done. Thank you.
Miranda, brilliant! Thank you