It all seems to have started when Erika Kirk made an appearance on the Charlie Kirk show. Here’s video of it:
We will be careful to note that while we are angry about some people’s reactions to Mrs. Kirk for smiling, that doesn’t include Ms. Linder. She seems to have the right attitude. We are only citing her post to show you where this nontroversy is coming from.
And, yes, as advertised, we quickly started to see ghouls attacking Mrs. Kirk for smiling. Here’s an early example of this:
We will get through many other examples in a moment (you can find dozens by searching for "Erika Kirk smiling" in Twitter/X's search bar), but let us say something about all of them. Are they stupid, or just amazingly inexperienced? This author is over half a century old (frak!) and has been to his share of funerals. And we have never been to a funeral where anyone—including the wife or husband of the deceased—was constantly sad. Even when we suffered absolutely devastating losses we would be sad at times, sometimes crying very hard, but no one was constantly sad, never smiling. And frankly, we can think of at least three instances (including the late John Hoge) where we know the deceased wouldn’t want us to constantly cry over them—they believed affirmatively in finding the joy in life. Our personal attitude is that while is natural and normal to be sad that a person is gone, we should remember to be glad to have known them at all.
Indeed, anyone who has been to a funeral knows that there are perverse positives in the process. If a parent dies, then literally all of his or her children and their families gather together in what operates as an impromptu family reunion. Sometimes these people were getting along well and it just is a nice change to see everyone at once. And sometimes members of the family were not getting along and it is an opportunity to put aside differences, because life is fleeting, after all. And when they get together, what do normal humans do? They reminisce. They remember the good times, the funny stories and so on.
And that doesn’t even get into how in some parts of our culture, people intentionally tell jokes at sad moments in order to alleviate the sadness. We once went to a funeral where a man had lost his father, after losing his mother some time before. Noting the placement of his father’s coffin, he said, ‘See Dad, finally you get to be on top!’ And yes, everyone listening laughed. And no one thought he wasn't also devastated, because we were all normal people who understand normal human emotion.
And for the record, other emotions come out. Anger is normal in the process, too: Sometimes misplaced anger and sometimes well-placed anger. We have seen very ugly arguments at funerals, old family arguments brought to the surface, and we consider that normal and part of the healing process. The fact is that sadness and mourning is only one of the many normal reactions that people feel when dealing with death.
And, of course, as of this writing it has been seventeen days since Charlie Kirk was murdered by a leftist assassin in order to silence him. At some point people do move on. At some point they start to smile and laugh again. And indeed, it is good to feel good when remembering the person you lost. We are reminded of a line in Batman Begins: ‘one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.’ The character was talking about the deleterious effects of only feeling pain and anger when you remember your loved ones. If you don’t want to go down that dark route, then you have to force yourself to remember the good times, the happiness. Because if all you feel is pain when you remember someone, you will want to put the person out of your mind—and Erika Kirk is determined to keep her late husband’s memory alive, as demonstrated in the full clip.
Seriously, have these people never been to a funeral? Or are they so bereft of normal human emotion that they don’t know or recognize how normal people act when they are faced with such a monumental loss? Or are they hoping to take advantage of other people’s ignorance to score stupid political points? We report, you decide.
And like we said, this was not the only moron saying this sort of thing:
The cut off text:
Erika Kirk has been smiling ???? ear to ear literally days after her husband murder
She maybe able to fool you but she’s not fooling me.
Of course, since Mrs. Kirk seems to be stepping into a leadership role in her late husband’s organization, it is perfectly valid to criticize her. We are not saying it is inherently wrong to criticize her. But this is a stupid criticism and it deserves pushback.
The cut off text:
She doesn’t need to show up, but she did, why? Just a little off for my liking.
Yes, she should just remain in her home, in the dark, forever, or something.
We will remind you that Charlie Kirk was murdered in order to silence him. Erika Kirk going out there to keep his legacy alive is actively thwarting the killer’s goals, which might be extremely good for her soul.
The cut off text:
Is disgraceful that she’s not showing the respect his death deserves by properly mourning his death.
And it goes on. Which led some of the heavy hitters to step in:
It must have been a deeply bittersweet moment for her to lose her husband only to give birth to his child a couple months later without him, feeling the joy of new life in the shadow of such a loss.
And Ms. Joy was not done being a moron:
The cut off text:
It’s unfortunate but it’s the path she has chosen which I respect.
Yeah, we are feeling the respect. eye roll
Again, criticism is allowed. But stupid, unjustified criticism is itself going to be criticized, and normal people will think that such criticism is socially out of bounds. Normal people think that if you are going to criticize a widow so soon after she suffered such a loss better have a darn good reason for doing it.
But Ms. Roth had her own response to Ms. Joy on Twitter/X and she used a naughty naughty word, so we will only be quoting her, rather than embedding the post:
That’s your take.
Mine is that criticizing a grieving widow whose husband has just been a assassinated [sic] for coping in a totally normal way is c—ty behavior.
Glad we have that sorted.
This person was also responding to Ms. Joy’s posts:
Indeed, Mrs. Kirk has two young children. It would not be good for them psychologically if their only remaining parent was left in a permanent hole of depression.
But Mrs. Francis wants to thank the people who responded to her very sensible point:
We detect sarcasm...
Finally, this is a vile two-fer:
Of course, in reality (where normal people understand normal emotions), we think that the first assassination attempt on President Trump actually had the effect of bring him and Melania closer together. Just as funerals often bring people closer together, medical emergencies and near-death experiences have a similar effect, which normal people understand and recognize. But you do you, you ghoul.
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