Students Divided On Charlie Kirk Memorial At Utah Valley University [Op-Ed]

Today marks one year since Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University, and as expected, the anniversary has drawn mixed emotions. 

The New York Times reports that UVU students are divided about Turning Point USA’s plans to hold a “deliberate act of remembrance” at the university on the anniversary of Kirk’s death. The planned memorial has led school officials to cancel classes for the day. Some students appreciate the gesture, calling Kirk a martyr for free speech and Christian conservatism. 

“It’s a way to honor him,” Jimmy Thurston, a 21-year-old UVU student, told The Times as he laid a rose near the site where Charlie Kirk was killed. “This was a national tragedy.”

Ruby Olsen, a 20-year-old anthropology major who had been watching Kirk speak when she heard the rifle shot that killed him, is less enthusiastic, saying that his killing “is all we are now.”

The campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society is planning to protest Turning Point USA’s memorial service. Ethan Cunningham, chapter president, told The Times that the university’s decision to cancel classes “is almost like making this a holiday.” 

While UVU is shutting down to mark the anniversary of Kirk’s death, Jon Anderson, who became Utah Valley’s president last month, told The Times that UVU will not shut down for future anniversaries. Anderson said he plans to attend both the memorial and the protest to understand where students who are on opposing sides of the issue stand.

The year following Kirk’s death has been interesting, to say the least. After years of being told that we had to respect the free speech rights of every lame-ass white dude on a podcast who disparages Black people who died due to police violence, suddenly making jokes about a conservative podcaster who was killed crossed the line. People were fired for making tweets that more or less boiled down to “sucks he died like that, but I’m not gonna sit here and act like I think this is some big loss.” 

Right-wing pundits and bots have lamented how Charlie Kirk has been turned into a meme since he died. While I haven’t publicly posted much about Charlie Kirk cause I work for a city government and like being able to pay my bills, you can be damn sure I’ve been sending those memes in the group chat.

The only people I really feel bad for are Kirk’s kids and the people who had to witness Kirk’s death. And I guess Charlie Kirk, but also, like, it’s hard to have sympathy for someone who spent their life arguing against having empathy for marginalized communities. When a guy who argued that gun deaths are “worth it” to have the Second Amendment dies from gun violence, it’s hard not to point out the irony of that situation – especially when his last moments were spent responding to a question about gun violence with a racist, dog-whistle reference to Black people and “gang violence.”

Over the last month, we’ve seen the deaths of icons such as Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. 

The reaction to those deaths wasn’t ridicule or a sarcastic “you hate to see it,” but a genuine outpouring of grief and remembrance. They made art that impacted generations of people, and in Parton’s case, she genuinely used her wealth to try to improve life for kids all across the United States. 

I think if there’s any lesson to be learned from Charlie Kirk’s death, it’s that if you spend your life being an asshole, don’t be surprised when people continue to treat you like an asshole in death. 

SEE ALSO:

Tennessee Professor Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comments Receives $1.9M

Charlie Kirk’s Death Spurs Newfound Unity Among Republicans