For Whom the Bell Tolls

One of the most disturbing parts of Charlie Kirk’s assassination – beyond the devastating brutality of it – is the fact that there are many people on the left in this country who are celebrating his death; there are a lot of people who are justifying the murder of someone with whom they disagree politically. Thousands of people on-line have been cheering his death; dozens of military members have been placed on leave for disturbing social media posts about the assassination of an American citizen; Secretary of State Marco Rubio is revoking the US visas of hundreds of foreigners in this country celebrating Kirk’s assassination; even an administrator from a prominent American University proclaimed on social media that he was “happy” that Charlie Kirk was murdered. Jimmy Kimmel was recently suspended as the host of ABC’s late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, because he used his monologue on that show to score political points by mocking Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 

These people will point to a statement Kirk made out of context or a political position that he held as if that is some type of justification for his murder. No one is batting a thousand. There’s not a person on this planet who has never said a problematic statement in their lives. There’s not a human being who everyone agrees with all the time. So, if it has become okay to assassinate someone because they said something wrong or you disagree with them, then everyone is suddenly in the crosshairs; the bull’s eye is on everyone’s back. Is that the country we want to live in? Is that the humanity that we want to be a part of? You have to be perfect and universally loved, or you can be murdered?

Witnessing all of this, I get a sense of how Jesus ended up being crucified, and how the crowd cheered for Barabbas over him. Charlie Kirk was a deeply religious man, who loved God, who loved his country, who loved his family, and who loved his fellow man. There are thousands of hours of video on the internet that prove the previous sentence. So, the fact that in many people’s eyes, Charlie Kirk had been twisted into this monster, this fascist, this person who hated anyone who disagreed with him, shows how easily the masses can be manipulated into believing a lie. Charlie was one of the few people in American politics who not only believed in but practiced open debate – free exchange of ideas with people of opposing beliefs and ideologies. He embraced the cornerstone principles upon which our country was founded, principles that so few practice today. He believed that free open dialogue brought people together and was the best way to unite a divided country. He was the anti-echo chamber in a society in love with the sound of their own voice. Charlie was the embodiment of an anti-fascist, yet he was the one who was labeled a fascist by people who wanted him silence because he held different beliefs. Only a fascist cheers the death of an anti-fascist.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.” And he was assassinated for the same reason Charlie Kirk was assassinated – he believed something different than the assassin. But sadly, too many people on the left in this country believe that where they fail with the ballot, they should succeed with the bullet. We saw that in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 where a potential assassin’s bullet came within millimeters of determining the outcome of our last Presidential election.

The day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert Kennedy said, “What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by his assassin’s bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.” But this type of political violence has become all too common, and sadly, accepted as part of American politics. Luigi Mangione, who assassinated United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, has been heralded as a folk hero. The BLM riots which tore apart our country and killed over 30 people, were celebrated and cheered on by many political leaders on the left. And now some people are cheering the murder of a truly good man, because they disagreed with his opinions on political and social matters. The celebration and acceptance of his murder, not only weakens our country, but is truly dangerous to our nation and its citizens.

Robert Kennedy continued, “Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily—whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence—whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.” Our entire nation has been degraded by the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We are a worse country because of it, not just because we lost an incredible thought leader, but because, through the reaction by many on the left, we cannot even come together and agree that political assassinations are wrong, and evil, and dangerous to our country, to our world, to the human race.

I think back to a poem written by English poet and cleric, John Donne, who in 1624 wrote:   

“Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.”

Each man’s death diminishes me. So, when you celebrate the death of another man, you are celebrating your own demise, the coming of your own death, the death of this country, the death of mankind which we are blindly plodding towards. 

Robert Kennedy finished his speech by saying, “But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely, we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.”

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.