Our community joined a handful of other towns in Connecticut and across the country, honoring the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk. On Monday, September 22nd, the first day of Fall, a vigil was held for Charlie Kirk, in front of Stratford Town Hall.
As I looked out at the crowd of over 100 people, some my neighbors, and other community members I’d never seen or met before, and as dusk turned to night, the question I kept asking myself, as a Black person, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and as a woman, is this: what does it mean to Make America Great Again?
Charlie Kirk’s legacy is rooted in the good he professed to doing in the world, including the founding of his nonprofit Turning Point U.S.A, founded in 2012. In the “About” section of the nonprofit’s website it says: Turning Point USA guides citizens through development of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation, so they can meaningfully engage in their communities to restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family, and fiscal responsibility. The four movements described on the website are Blexit, Faith, Education, and Alumni, which you can read about here, all seem to aim to “make America great again.” (Blexit is currently a movement encouraging Blacks and other minorities to leave the Democratic Party.)
I milled through the crowd, looking into the eyes of men, women and children, acknowledging one another’s presence in silence. When I asked Mike, a 34-year-old Stratford resident, what he learned from Charlie Kirk, he said, “To listen to others, and learn from other people.” He went on to say, “I feel like it’s [the vigil] something you have to show up to even if you don’t agree with everything he says.” The conflict I had, after hearing Mike’s answer to my question was this: what does it say if you believe in some of what he said?
Dozens of people huddled across the lawn at Town Hall, with images of Charlie Kirk front and center. Chairs were filled with people holding signs that read “We are Charlie Kirk”, others holding candles, wearing Make America Great Again hats, and there were crosses decked out in the colors and image of the American flag. I heard the voice of the Baptist pastor tasked with bringing comfort, hope, and spiritual guidance to those in mourning for the life of Charlie Kirk. He said,“Honoring Charlie will not get you to heaven, Charlie would tell you that.”
Is this what it means to Make America Great Again…to get into heaven?
I asked another person in the crowd, Vanessa, 21 years old, why it was important for her to attend the vigil and she said, “Because Charlie was an inspiration to the youth and what our country needed. He motivated and gave youth confidence to speak about stuff they were afraid to speak about publicly.”
I, for one, believe in the power of free speech, in the vulnerability it takes to share one’s own thoughts and views, but what if those words cause harm? What then? And what if that harm is done to one group of people, and not others? Doesn’t free speech mean free to all? A difference of opinion shouldn’t be cause for harm, should it?
Is this what it means to Make America Great Again? To uphold Christian values in thought, word, and deed?
I saw many children, holding their candles and seemingly present in the moment, listening to the words of the Baptist pastor. I asked Erin, a 41-year-old mom of four, why she chose to bring her children to the Charlie Kirk vigil. She said,“As a Christian family, as a Christian mother, I share the importance of faith with my kids. And with the loss of a fellow brother, Charlie Kirk, unfortunately, we are in a spiritual warfare right now. It’s important to see others come together, that believers in Christ come together to support one another…it was important to show my kids to have confidence, faith, courage and joy, in showing up for one another on this night.”
What even are Christian values? Are they the same to everyone?
Most Sunday’s I go to church, and recommit myself to living my life through the teachings within the Bible, and with those teachings I can better understand and define my own faith through the lens of what is happening in the world today. In the writing of this article, I considered what I connect with most, as a Christian person when I practice my religion, and this is what I leave you with: We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For me, this is a reminder that we are a community of people, living in a world in which negative thoughts, deeds, and actions can swallow us whole if we don’t treat our neighbors as ourselves, and yet, what does that mean…to treat our neighbors as ourselves?
We invite your thoughtful responses on any or all of the questions posed in this article, and if you attended a vigil we would love to know your experiences.
Editor’s Note: I attended the vigil as a reporter for the Stratford Crier. My lived experience is also represented in this piece as well.
Excellent, balanced reporting.
I appreciate the information about the statistics of deaths by guns in the U.S., including by suicide. No other country in the world offers gun owernship as easy as in the U.S. Owning a gun doesn’t seen to offer safety for our citizens, in home, churches, work places or schools. What can we do to be safer from people with guns?
Nikkya, thank you for this thoughtful, loving article. We must find ways to love each other. We are all messy creatures trying to find our way. Stratford can be a community where we hold hands as we blunder forward trying to build a better future for our children and lifting each other up as we go forward.
Charlie Kirk was appealing to young people and that is a very good thing, however he had some racist, misoginist ideas that did not land well for me. I would hope that 100 people in Stratford would show up for a No Kings day. Lets see if that happens