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| By The Free Press |
It’s Thursday, September 11. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Later today we’ll bring you an essay by our Niall Ferguson on the anniversary of 9/11. But this morning, there is just one story we’re covering: the murder of 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
With increasing urgency and horror, we have been covering the terrible upsurge in political violence that threatens to tear our country apart. Yesterday came the most shocking example yet: the assassination of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA and drew thousands of young people to conservatism.
He was murdered while speaking to a crowd of some 3,000 students at Utah Valley University. He was standing under a canopy that read “PROVE ME WRONG,” urging students to debate him. He was the living embodiment of the First Amendment.
Kirk’s killer reportedly shot him from a distance of 200 yards—the murder was obviously planned. As of this writing, investigators are searching for a suspect, but this much we can already say: Whoever assassinated Kirk was also attacking democracy itself, using political violence as a response to ideas he didn’t agree with. Political violence has become far too common in recent times, and we will continue to call for America to recapture values that will help lower the political temperature. Values like family and faith and a genuine reverence for free speech. Values that Charlie Kirk held dear.
Today, we’re offering a series of stories about Charlie Kirk’s assassination—and what it means for America.
Adam Rubenstein recalls spending time with the activist when he was 24, and marveling at “how someone at such a young age could command the attention and respect that he did—and in such a short period.”
Ben Shapiro went even further back with Kirk, meeting him for the first time when the activist was 18. Some 13 years ago, he recalls telling a friend, “That kid is going to be the head of the Republican National Committee one day.” Ben adds, “I was wrong. Charlie became far more important than that.”
Matthew Continetti says Kirk’s assassination is a watershed moment in American history. “It is the most stunning evidence we have to date that America is becoming two nations,” he warns. “Weak institutions, corrupted data, rampant distrust, political enmity, and an apparent inability to control criminality and the dangerously mentally ill tear us apart like a centrifugal force.” So what can bring us back from the brink? Read his piece to find out.
Kirk was perhaps the most effective conservative activist of his generation. And so we asked seven young conservatives how Kirk influenced their view of the world. Here’s what they told us.
Finally, our editors look at the other shocking murder that made headlines this week—that of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina—and the policies that helped lead to her death.
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