I love what you write, but when you say he was "engaging in dialogue", I find myself shaking my head. Yes, he may not have been yelling and screaming (I didn't see the video, so I'll assume that's correct), but "engaging in dialogue" implies a mutual respect. He was spreading hatred and bigotry. While I cannot defend or condone violence, I also don't want to candycoat or misrepresent the bigotry and hatred he spread over the years and continued to spread.
It is possible to be aware that this man built his career on stirring up violent hatred and bigotry of all kinds, and also to know that shooting him down in cold blood is an act of terrible desperation, and a participation in the stochastic terrorism of our time.
Democracy Now memorialized a great leader -Dr Robert Jay Lifton - who died a couple of days ago.
Dr. Lifton wrote about Nazi Doctors and the atomic bomb, and he wrote a book called “The Climate Swerve” about the absurd reality of “malignant normality” that we have cultivated in our culture.
Lifton quotes poet Theodore Roethke:
In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in. The deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood —
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
We live in a time where malignancy has been normalized.
Our path is one of absolute vulnerability in a time when human denial of reality and violence combine to wield the most powerful, god-like technologies that humans have ever made.
This is an evil time, and a time of unavoidable consequences from the long slow violence that has characterized these past few millennia, and especially the past few centuries and decades.
We have concentrated the toxin of ecocidal violence and now we eat, drink, and breathe the poison of our own violence.
I do not see any way forward. The only generative option we have is indeed to form radical beloved communites as we float in the turbulent flotsam and jetsam of this maelstrom. We can try to care for one another and even the earth a little bit. We can speak truth to one another and also speak truth to power.
We are not alone.
Love is also at work.
The Way of Love has no end.
While all of these violent empires and elites contain the seeds of their own destruction, and they are already falling and failing -
Thank you! These are words of lament I needed to hear. I was no fan of Charlie Kirk but I grieve his violent and senseless death. Grieving is what this country needs!
The larger picture is gun access and violence in the USA … more than 350 mass shootings so far in 2025 (defined where 4 or more are killed/injured) and the fourth year in a row where the leading cause of death of children and youth is guns.
Is it any wonder there is also political violence with guns?
Thank you for your deep wisdom and capacity to articulate what many are feeling -
I love what you write, but when you say he was "engaging in dialogue", I find myself shaking my head. Yes, he may not have been yelling and screaming (I didn't see the video, so I'll assume that's correct), but "engaging in dialogue" implies a mutual respect. He was spreading hatred and bigotry. While I cannot defend or condone violence, I also don't want to candycoat or misrepresent the bigotry and hatred he spread over the years and continued to spread.
It is possible to be aware that this man built his career on stirring up violent hatred and bigotry of all kinds, and also to know that shooting him down in cold blood is an act of terrible desperation, and a participation in the stochastic terrorism of our time.
Democracy Now memorialized a great leader -Dr Robert Jay Lifton - who died a couple of days ago.
Dr. Lifton wrote about Nazi Doctors and the atomic bomb, and he wrote a book called “The Climate Swerve” about the absurd reality of “malignant normality” that we have cultivated in our culture.
Lifton quotes poet Theodore Roethke:
In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in. The deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood —
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
We live in a time where malignancy has been normalized.
Our path is one of absolute vulnerability in a time when human denial of reality and violence combine to wield the most powerful, god-like technologies that humans have ever made.
This is an evil time, and a time of unavoidable consequences from the long slow violence that has characterized these past few millennia, and especially the past few centuries and decades.
We have concentrated the toxin of ecocidal violence and now we eat, drink, and breathe the poison of our own violence.
I do not see any way forward. The only generative option we have is indeed to form radical beloved communites as we float in the turbulent flotsam and jetsam of this maelstrom. We can try to care for one another and even the earth a little bit. We can speak truth to one another and also speak truth to power.
We are not alone.
Love is also at work.
The Way of Love has no end.
While all of these violent empires and elites contain the seeds of their own destruction, and they are already falling and failing -
Love never fails.
Thank you! These are words of lament I needed to hear. I was no fan of Charlie Kirk but I grieve his violent and senseless death. Grieving is what this country needs!
The larger picture is gun access and violence in the USA … more than 350 mass shootings so far in 2025 (defined where 4 or more are killed/injured) and the fourth year in a row where the leading cause of death of children and youth is guns.
Is it any wonder there is also political violence with guns?
ALL of it should be intolerable.
I’m doing an online retreat at Abbey of the Arts. I write a psalm of lament today.
'Offer mercy where you want to mock. Ask a question where you want to shout.' - a challenge in all relationships. Thank you.