Binding our nation’s wounds

The shocking assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk last week on the campus of Utah Valley University appears to have torn some of our national wounds wide open. The act conducted by a young man from southern Utah appears to have widened our already gaping national divide, and I’m not sure why.

The shooting was horrific and disgusting - the latest in a long line of shooting deaths our nation has endured over the last 20 years – and there are myriad theories about why this guy took the terrible action that he did.

What is puzzling about this incident is the nearly instant, knee-jerk reaction from both sides of the political spectrum. Some have raged about a war on the opposing political party, and others have disgustingly opined that Mr. Kirk had it coming.

Our nation’s history is rife with tales of political violence, from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 to the killing of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home on June 14. But the Charlie Kirk killing has truly struck a nerve.

Frankly, I didn’t know a lot about Charlie Kirk, but he apparently wielded tremendous influence in the modern conservative movement, especially among young people. Perhaps it’s the brazen, shocking nature of the killing, or maybe I have underestimated his place in society, but I can’t figure out why this young man received a moment of silence at a University of Wyoming football game and an order for flags nationwide to be flown at half-mast.

He certainly was controversial, but that’s what political podcasters do. They stir the pot. But just because they take strong views doesn’t mean those who push the political envelope, even those who do so to an extreme extent, deserve to be killed. Has it really come to this in our country? Has our national rage at “them” reached the point where death to those with whom we disagree is the only solution?

There has never been a greater division in our nation than the Civil War of the 1860s, when our nation was nearly torn in half by political differences, and yet President Lincoln urged the people in his first inaugural address: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And in his second inaugural address, he famously stated the words of healing, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Our nation is wounded – and deeply and hurtfully divided. And I urge each and every one of us to take a pause, step back, think a little bit, pray and consider how we can help bind our nation’s wounds. If not, we’re seemingly in for a frightening future.

We can lower the partisan temperature if we will only take strong, measured steps to listen and understand our fellow citizens without going ballistic at every turn. It will take each of us doing so intentionally. I’ll say it again: I am grateful to be living in Wyoming where I truly believe what we all have in common is far greater than our differences. If only the rest of our nation could live the same way.

- David Peck