I read the news from Utah with a heavy heart. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. He was only thirty-one. He died hours later, in front of terrified young people who thought they had come to hear words, not witness death.
Three lies always surface after events like this. First, that violence somehow “balances the scales.” Second, that silencing someone’s voice erases their ideas. Third, that universities are battlegrounds, not sanctuaries of thought. All three are wrong—and dangerously so.
Violence never restores balance; it only deepens wounds. Silencing someone does not erase their words; it amplifies them in memory. And universities are not warzones—they are gardens of discourse, where even the most abrasive ideas should be pruned with reason, not bullets.
Charlie Kirk’s views were often extreme, and for many, deeply offensive. He denied climate change, spread conspiracy theories, and stood against issues that matter to countless people. But the moment we decide that disagreement can be answered with a sniper’s bullet, we stop being a society and start being a firing squad.
I offer my condolences to Charlie Kirk’s family, to his loved ones, and yes, even to his followers. No family deserves to bury a son because someone believed violence was the answer.
What happened in Utah is not just about Kirk, or the right, or the left. It is about us. It’s about whether we allow universities—those fragile spaces of thought, argument, and discovery—to become theatres of terror. If we do, we risk raising a generation that learns to fear debate, rather than master it.
As I write this, I keep returning to a simple truth: if our universities cannot guarantee safety for dialogue, they fail in their very mission. Safety is the soil in which free speech grows. Without it, all that remains is fear, and fear is the death of thought.
So, let us be clear. Political violence—no matter where it comes from, no matter whom it targets—must be condemned with one voice. Not because we all agree with Charlie Kirk, but because we all agree on something bigger: a society where words are answered with words, not weapons.
Maybe that is the only “American Comeback” worth fighting for.
— Written by Gerd Dani, President of FreeAstroScience
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