Harbingers

In hindsight, the assassination of Martin Luther King and the murder of the Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics had a major lifelong effect on my own political and cultural sensibilities. Though I only later, as a young adult, came to recognize the formative effect those events had on me.

In the actual moment, I experienced the MLK assassination simply as a horrific act of injustice. I was just old enough to perceive the vague combination of grief and dread exhibited by the adults in my life. And then four years later, I sat transfixed by the 1972 Olympics. But while I rejoiced in the victories of swimmer Mark Spitz, like many others I was appalled and enraged by the actions of Palestinian terrorists who took hostage, and then murdered, eleven Israeli athletes. My perception of the Palestinian cause, largely unformed and unconscious until then, was hardened by those events. And those hardened sensibilities thereafter served as part of my interpretational lens for sizing up American politicians and their views regarding the Middle East. In other words, those assassinations seared into my thought life a set of assumptions that have exerted an influence on the way I have voted ever since.

And I have been wondering if the assassination of Charlie Kirk is going to have a similar impact on today's rising generation. Will Charlie’s murder alter the assumptions about faith and politics held by millions of young people? Progressives have been ratcheting up their violent rhetoric and tactics for several years now, while largely receiving a wink and a nod from the political class. But the reaction to progressives’ glee at Charlie’s murder suggests that progressives may have overreached this time.

Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, wrote overnight on his Substack:

"For all the fear of 'Christian Nationalism,' a shallow, largely fictitious bogeyman for years, the murder of Charlie Kirk has effectively called it into being as a force."

If you watched the memorial for Charlie Kirk, with hundreds of thousands in attendance and millions online, you will easily understand the "why" of Reynolds' observation.

And the Babylon Bee, as is their wont these days, can't decide if they want to do satire or straight-up reporting.

I have wondered if the video below represents a harbinger of sorts. This 16-year-old young woman, on her own initiative, asked to be allowed to share her thoughts at one of the many vigils for Charlie Kirk that have taken place across the country since his murder. She is the daughter of noted author Meghan Basham. The young woman in the video evidently sought out the opportunity to share these remarks, having never indicated an interest in such activities before. The thoughts she expressed are, apparently, entirely her own.

At the church I attend, various volunteers assist in passing communion trays from pew to pew on any given Sunday. Yesterday, on the very day of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, one of the volunteers, a young man, nineteen or twenty years old, chose to wear a replica of the shirt Charlie was wearing on the day he was murdered. If the reaction of these young people to Charlie's murder is at all representative of their generation, progressives are about to discover that continuing to lose campus debates to Charlie Kirk was the least bad option they had available.