In a Time of Violence, Hold the Line on Decency
A Letter from the Anderson County Democratic Party
There is no playbook for this moment.
In the span of days, America has been soaked in blood. Schools torn apart by bullets. And now, Charlie Kirk shot dead in front of students.
We don’t all feel the same way about it, and maybe that’s the most honest thing we can say right now. Some of us feel grief, even guilt, because of old personal ties to him before politics. Others feel numb, or angry, or indifferent. Some can’t stop thinking about his family, especially his children. Some can’t stop thinking about the families whose names will never trend, the children whose deaths will never make national headlines.
That mix of feeling (contradiction, confusion, even silence) is real.
And it’s okay.
What ties us together is the conviction that political violence is always wrong. That democracy cannot survive if bullets decide who speaks and who doesn’t. Not when the target is Charlie Kirk. Not when the target is Paul Pelosi. Not when the target is Melissa and Mark Hortman. Not when the target is children sitting in classrooms.
And yet, we see the hypocrisy playing out in real time. Flags lowered to half-mast for Kirk while school shootings are treated like background noise. A chorus of outrage from leaders who looked the other way when Democrats were gunned down, who laughed off the attack on Pelosi, who have built careers on stoking hate. We will not forget their selective outrage.
But we will not let their hypocrisy set the floor for us. Our floor has to be decency. Even when it feels impossible. Especially when it feels impossible.
Here is what people in our own leadership have been saying this week. Not as a single voice. Not as a tidy statement. But as a chorus — raw, contradictory, and real:
“Violence breeds violence. My prayers to his grieving family.”
”Grief is foremost. This is a time for compassion and kindness toward his family. It is a time to say that such violence is never okay, never.”
“Did it warrant him being killed? No. But school shootings are more consequential than this.”
“No one deserves to be killed for their beliefs. Political violence is wrong no matter what.”
“My family is devastated… my son-in-law went to school with him.”
“Honestly, I feel indifferent. He thought gun deaths were a small price for gun freedom.”
“They’re making a martyr out of one of the most disgusting excuses for humanity.”
“There were other gun deaths yesterday. They didn’t make the headlines.”
“This young man had two small children. To kill someone over politics is just wrong.”
“I wish everyone outraged about his death was equally outraged about school shootings.”
This is us. We’re messy, grieving, angry, conflicted.
There is no right way to feel in the wake of a political assassination. But there is one truth we cannot abandon: if democracy is to survive, the floor has to be decency. Because without it, there is nothing left to stand on.
If you want to share your own feelings, whatever they are, we’ve created a space here:
— The Anderson County Democratic Party
