What is the point of politics? What’s the point of constitutions and elections and the rule of a law? What’s the point of free speech and debate and the right to assemble and petition the government?

We have these things — our civilization has developed them — because the alternative to politics is violence. The alternative to politics is the pursuit of power at the edge of the sword — or at the point of the gun.

When a man shot Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University today, what America witnessed was the attempted assassination of a citizen who had done nothing but voice his opinions and organize an assembly to discuss matters in the public interest. As of this writing, there are conflicting reports about Kirk’s condition. My prayers are with him, his wife and two children, and his friends and colleagues. They are also with our country.

We cannot become numb to this. It doesn’t matter what Kirk’s politics are, what political causes he has supported, or which politicians he’s associated with. Defending, excusing, or justifying the attempt to murder a fellow citizen — as some online freaks and cable news ghouls have done today — for what he says or what he believes is the sign of a black heart and a disordered mind.

We are staring into the abyss. The moment when Americans of goodwill abstain from entering the public arena — as politicians, as activists, as citizens — will be the moment we refuse our God-given right to govern ourselves. If we are cowed by violence and the threat of violence into staying silent and avoiding political discourse, we are no longer free.