We are not okay.
I feel as though I’ve been saying that a lot lately — but today it’s different. Today, it’s heavier. Because today, I’m trying to process the fact that Charlie Kirk was murdered. Not metaphorically. Not “canceled.” Not criticized. Murdered.
He was a husband. A friend. A son. A man who held opinions — strong ones — and said them out loud. A man who welcomed debate. You don’t have to like those opinions. But if your first response to his death is to celebrate, justify, or even stay silent, I don’t know what to tell you except this:
We have lost something vital.
We’ve stopped seeing one another as people. We’ve stopped valuing life as sacred. We’ve turned disagreement into a blood sport. And the people who are fueling this fire — through their rage, their hate, their clicks, their smug online takes — are playing a dangerous game with all of our lives.
This isn’t just about Charlie.
It’s about the fact that we now live in a culture where “shut up or die” feels like a logical next step in the public square.
People aren’t debating anymore. They’re dehumanizing. They’re posting memes before the blood dries. They’re pulling up old quotes, as if that makes it okay. As if that makes someone’s murder something to shrug at or justify.
Spoiler: It doesn’t.
If we don’t name that as wrong — loudly, clearly, and without apology — then we’re complicit in it. Every single one of us.
I’ve had people push back and say, “Where’s this outrage when children are shot in schools?” And I’ll say this as plainly as I can that I mourn every school shooting. I am outraged every single time. But don’t confuse my politics with my pain. And don’t weaponize one tragedy to excuse another.
The problem isn’t guns. The problem is the human heart. The lack of purpose, of faith, of accountability, of connection. We have failed to deal with mental health in any serious way. We’ve medicated it, politicized it, and monetized it. But we haven’t healed it.
We have young men walking through schools with rifles, and others walking into public spaces with knives and cameras — ready to kill and livestream the carnage for likes. That’s not a gun issue. That’s a soul issue.
We’ve traded God for algorithms.
We’ve traded community for comment sections.
We’ve traded love for labels.
And it shows.
We don’t sit with people we disagree with anymore — we block them.
We don’t debate — we destroy.
We don’t ask questions — we assign motives.
And then we wonder why everything feels as though it’s burning down.
It’s not complicated. We’ve stopped seeing the humanity in one another.
Charlie Kirk’s murder is just the latest sign that we are tearing apart the fabric of a civil society. A society built not just on laws and rights, but on basic decency. On conversation. On the idea that we can disagree and still coexist. That you don’t have to be liked to be allowed to live.
That’s gone now. And it’s terrifying.
But here’s what I refuse to do: I refuse to give up. I refuse to join the chorus of bitterness. I refuse to become what I despise.
I will still fight for kindness. I will still choose respect. I will still believe in love. In God. In grace. In decency. I will still pray for those who hate me, and even more so for those who hate people like Charlie, enough to kill them.
I will still say: We can come back from this. But not if we stay on the path we’re on.
We need more front porch talks. More church. More neighbors helping neighbors. More old-fashioned goodness. More people who say, “I don’t agree with you — but I’ll stand up for your right to say it.”
We need to raise our kids to value people more than platforms. We need to stop measuring worth by popularity and start looking at character. We need to remember that our words matter — but our hearts matter more.
Because right now, the way we’re treating each other? The way we’re tearing each other apart? This is not sustainable.
Charlie’s murder shook me. But what scares me more is how few people seem to care. If that doesn’t alarm you, it should.
It’s not about Charlie being conservative. It’s not about whom you voted for. It’s about whether we still believe in living in a society where people are allowed to be human — flawed, outspoken, passionate, and yes, sometimes controversial — without being hunted down and slaughtered in front of a camera.
So I’ll say it again: We are not okay.
But if we want to be — if we want to rebuild what we’ve lost — it starts right now. With more kindness. More humility. More faith.
More love.
And less hate. Always, always less hate.
Jessica Curtis is the founder and managing editor of Think American News and co-founder of Walk Off Media Group.
