Many years ago, I was someone that had a regular presence on the airwaves. I was a local talk show host. Anyone that has been in that business will tell you that a show is only as good as the opening monologue. It’s your way of setting the table for what you want to talk about. After leaving that business, I have felt, off and on, the need to share one of those, but never as completely as I felt the other day when I learned of the death of Charlie Kirk.

I could go into who he was and what he meant to so many people, but I trust that you would be able to look that up online and don’t need me to do that for you. What I want to spend time on is the observations that I have had and the lessons that we should all be learning from a horrific event such as this. Make no mistake, while I do have certain political views, this is not a post that will share them. I don’t have interest in converting you to my way of thinking. Some things are bigger than politics and this is one of those things.

First and foremost, what we witnessed was the assassination of a father, husband, friend, a human being. He spoke his mind on things and was unashamed. He didn’t earn death for his ideas. He merely exercised his right to free speech. That is not something that you should be killed for.

What I have seen in the aftermath has been the most disturbing. Those that are from both sides of the aisle feel the need to blame one another for something like this. On the right, I have seen people proclaiming that “we are at war and we need to act like it.” From the left, I have seen, apart from those that have been celebrating his demise, people justifying the action, saying that he believed in the second amendment so he would be okay with being killed by a gun. Let me say to both sides, this is not a call to arms and this is not a happening that you can begin to justify. A man was killed for speaking his mind. There are two children that have been left fatherless and no justification can be made for that. As to the call to arms, Charlie himself was a Christian and modeled the kind of discourse he approved of. Watch his videos and you’ll see the respect that he showed a great many that came to debate with him. He wouldn’t have wanted a war, only a debate.

I have also seen people point to the alleged assassin’s background and say, “There, see? He came from a family that was conservative” as if being related to conservatives makes you one.

The heat of our rhetoric needs to be toned down. I have seen both sides of the debate spend time trying to cancel those they don’t agree with. When the argument can’t be answered, screams of words like hatred, Nazi, Hitler and so many others are heard. That only takes the humanity out of people you don’t agree with instead of acknowledging that we are all human beings and face the same issues in our lives. When you take the humanity out of a person, it is far easier to justify the most horrible things that could happen. The most important lesson in these times are being taught by those that have said violence should not be condoned. Indeed, Bernie Sanders compared it to cowardice and he’s right on the money about that.

The lesson for us all is that we need to be able to debate ideas rather than sling mud and try to paint each other as the problem. There are extremes on both sides of the aisle that will take matters into their own hands, that has been proven time and again. Instead, we need to focus on what we have in common. In the days immediately following September 11, 2001, we were all looking for the things that we held in common. We weren’t Democrat or Republican, but we were Americans and to put it more directly, we were human beings making our way here on planet Earth. We many disagree on ideas, but we can still be friends, brothers, sisters. Politics, in spite of what we have seen, is a temporary thing. In the end, you won’t wish that you voted a certain way. You’ll wish that you had more opportunities to show love, care and concern. It’s what we’re all called to and what we should aspire to each and every day. We should also be willing to be bold and share our beliefs and be unashamed in doing so. Charlie did and so many are the better for it.