Today is Constitution Day, commemorating the date in 1787 when the Founders at the Constitutional Convention set their names to the document that defined our republic. Ben Franklin said we had a republic if we could keep it. Leftists are definitely using any means possible, including assassination, to try and ensure that we don’t keep it.
We can all think of a dozen or more ways the Democrats have attacked our rights in recent years, from the censorship regime and lockdowns for Covid-19, to the Biden administration’s war on guns and freedom of conscience, to the weaponized federal justice system. But naturally, the bloody attack on all of our minds now is the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was truly killed for exercising his freedom of speech.
George Washington, who was not only the president of the Constitutional Convention but also the U.S. president when the Bill of Rights was ratified, famously issued a warning that has an ominous ring: “For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.”
I have read that quote dozens, if not hundreds, of times, but, somehow, Washington’s use of the word “slaughter” did not strike me profoundly until this past week. Now, as it happens, Washington wasn’t necessarily talking about being killed for free speech, though he was talking to soldiers. Rather, Washington was making a hard-hitting comparison between a human being silenced and the butchering of animals, because what distinguishes us most from animals is our ability to speak and think, meaning that without the freedom to think and speak, we are akin to mere beasts.
Related: It's Constitution Day, a Timely Commemoration of Our American Liberties
But the horrible and plain truth is that Charlie Kirk was slaughtered for offering his sentiments on various important matters. He did not commit any violence; in fact, he was famous for how charitable and respectful he was when he was debating other people. Even when the person in question supported outright terrorism or mutilation of children, Kirk was able to treat that person kindly.
Accused shooter and LGBTQ radical Tyler Robinson’s reasoning for targeting Kirk, based on information released by authorities and confirmed by the family’s testimony and messages from Robinson himself, was simply that Kirk was allegedly spreading “hate.” Or, in other words, Kirk expressed truths that undermined lies that Robinson believed and that therefore Robinson found offensive.
We have heard it said that our free speech is under attack so many times that perhaps we have become rather numb to it. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a wake-up call. Democrats so successfully brainwashed a segment of Americans that they truly believe violence is the answer to free speech. Hence the rising phenomenon of transgender murderers and the never-ending anti-ICE riots, not to mention the assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
The Founding Fathers fought a Revolution for free speech. Charlie Kirk was killed for free speech. Nearly 250 years after America was born, we need to understand how deadly serious our opponents are about trying to destroy this nation. It’s a republic only if we can keep it.
