What Is Happening to America?
I am not an American. But like many others around the world, America was an obsession to me growing up. It was the country of free voices, the country where people could disagree fiercely without fear. A symbol of hope, of freedom.
America was not always like this. There was a time when people were punished simply for their words, when saying the wrong thing could cost you your freedom. Over the years that began to change. Little by little, the culture shifted, and America grew into the most speech‑protective country in the world. The lesson was simple but profound: free speech is not just for popular ideas, it must also protect the voices we dislike or even despise.
That was the story of America that so many of us grew up believing in. A place where a man could stand on a stage, say what he believes, no matter how controversial, and then go home to his wife and kids.
That was the promise of the beacon of free speech.
And yet, yesterday in Utah, we all watched a bullet break that promise. Charlie Kirk, a husband to Erika and father of two small children, did not return home. He was killed not in a warzone, not in a dark alley, but on a university campus, the place meant to protect ideas, to challenge them, and to allow disagreement without fear.
Who would have imagined that in the epicenter of free speech, a speaker would be shot for debating students? Who could have imagined that some Americans would celebrate the death of a father and husband simply because they disagreed with his views? This is not about partisan politics. That rot is deeper. It is human failure.
I do not care if you liked him or hated him. The rule should be simple enough for a child to repeat: nobody deserves to be shot for speaking. If you cannot say that clearly, without endless caveats then something inside your moral compass has broken.
But the bullet is only part of the story. The celebration is the other. The laughter online, the memes, the glee at seeing a human being being shot to death. What does it mean when a culture not only tolerates violence, but applauds it? What does it mean when mocking the death of a father becomes a form of entertainment?
In the past few decades, America has started to drift toward a culture where disagreement is no longer seen as part of democracy, but as proof that the other side is evil. People are not just wrong, they are called “dangerous.”
It began with silencing voices on campuses, then with people losing jobs over their words, then with online mobs chasing individuals until their lives collapsed. That dehumanization has consequences. Words still matter, but less and less. Instead of disagreement, we see demonization. And once you convince yourself that the person you disagree with is not human, violence becomes easier. This kind of violence is what happens when the habit of dehumanizing others finally reaches its end point.
This is why what happened in Utah should shake Americans. Not only because Charlie Kirk was killed, but because so many could watch it happen and feel satisfaction.
Free speech was never a promise that words would feel good. It was an agreement: we will fight with ideas so we do not fight with weapons. You can protest, you can argue, you can walk away. But what you cannot do, if you want a functioning country, is normalize political violence.
Charlie Kirk himself once said:
“When people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues. When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group.
What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement—where violence is not an option.”
Yesterday proved him right in the worst possible way.
May his memory be a blessing.
