Erika Kirk forgives the killer of her husband, right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, who was shot as he spoke before students and professors at Utah Valley University on September 10.
“On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.’ That man. That young man. I forgive him,” Kirk’s widow said as she spoke at her husband’s memorial service before tens of thousands in a packed Arizona stadium (Max Rebo, “Erika Kirk says she forgives husband’s accused killer,” The Hill, September 21, 2025).
She was referring, of course, to 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who has confessed to having done the shooting.
It’s a generous and admirable way to deal with the killing of someone so close to her, and I hope it will help settle tensions in the country over this recent politically motivated action.
I barely knew who Charlie Kirk, founder of the popular Turning Point USA group of young people, was before he was violently killed. But I’m sad for Erika and the two small Kirk children, and sad for all the people who loved and admired Charlie Kirk.
He and I, and presumably Erika Kirk and I, would probably not agree on much if we were to sit down and discuss issues.
But that’s okay. Disagreement— peaceful disagreement—-is fine in a democracy. We have problems in this country, and we need to hear ideas from all sides about how to solve them.
I’m old enough to remember when people on both sides of an issue could sit down and discuss a problem, present suggestions for how to solve it, negotiate and choose what’s best in each proposal, and reach a solution that would be better than either of the original suggestions.
No, there has never been a “golden” time when negotiation and agreement were easy. But they could happen.
And they still can if enough of us have the will to make it happen.
President Donald Trump was one of numerous Trump administration officials who also spoke at Kirk’s memorial, but he took a very different approach.
“Charlie wanted the best for his opponents,” Trump said. “I don’t want the best for my opponents. I hate them.”
I suppose there’s something to be said for his honesty in making such an admission. But in my view, such intolerance is one of many reasons Donald Trump is unfit to be President.
I’m reminded of the words of a much earlier President, Abraham Lincoln, who in his Second Inaugural Address described how those who had fomented a bloody Civil War, one designed to end his government and perhaps take his own life, should be treated: “With malice toward none, with charity for all…” In two of the speeches I’ve mentioned, we find the spirit that can take this country forward, can “bind up the nation’s wounds” as Lincoln also said.
In the other, we find the voice of hatred, revenge, and destruction. I know which I prefer, and I hope most of this country does as well.