The killing of Charlie Kirk was wrong, but his rhetoric was strident and dismissive.
For a debate to be honest, to be one where each side is equally represented and assigned equivalent positions from which they must begin, requires a level field.
From David Corn, “No, Charlie Kirk was not practicing politics the right way, ” Mother Jones, Sept, 11, 2025
The sports analogy is overused (I apologize), but it is such a good one because we all understand the one basic of a sports competition: The rules must be the same for both teams. If not, it is not a fair game or fair debate.
Any educator of any age will tell you how they hold the power in the relationship with students.
Any adult, whether ten or more years older than college students, who is invited to a campus for a “Prove Me Wrong” moment, also holds the power in so-called debates with college students.
A thirty-one-year-old with a large social media following holds the power in exchanges with college students if, for no other reason, that he, for whatever reason, has been invited to the campus to speak and is well-known. That same person sits on a stage or platform, literally and figuratively elevated above the students. He alone holds his own microphone and does not have to share with another speaker.
The 1st Amendment protects him; thus, he can, and does, say anything he likes—whether true or not. The “Prove Me Wrong” segments of his appearances on college campuses are not a debate between equals but a false exchange for one person’s philosophy to be spewed.
The Trump administration is going full force in trying to gain control of our colleges and universities. It withholds funding as a form of blackmail in an attempt to force schools to do its bidding. Schools are constantly under attack for what and how they teach. Programs such as DEI are lied about, and threats are made against schools to get them to abolish programs that the present administration does not like.
Post courtesy TikTok
The assault is public, and one recent example of this battle is reported by The Texas Tribune: “Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III terminated [Melissa] McCoul after a video went viral that showed a confrontation between her and a student in one of her summer classes, an upper-level children’s literature course.
The video, which does not show anyone’s face, captures audio of a student objecting to a professor teaching that there are more than two genders. The student said this conflicts with President Donald Trump’s executive order and her religious beliefs, and McCoul responded by saying she had a right to teach the lesson while the student had a right to leave.”
That is just one example of several instances in which the agenda of the Trump administration is used to fire an employee in government service, rule a college/university, cull books from a college library (see Hegseth’s directive to the Naval Academy Library), or in other ways impose itself on American democracy.
Yet the Trump administration wants it both ways. It deplores what it calls “an indoctrination of American youth,” teaching them to hate themselves and feel bad about America’s history. However, just because something is spoken or written, it does not make it accurate. And truth is all we have.
The killing of Charlie Kirk was wrong, but was he a model we want for our children? No.
Suppose the Trump administration is honestly concerned about what our college students are being exposed to, and even younger students. In that case, it will stop making a martyr of the man who was sadly killed, but spoke the following words to America’s students:
“Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”
“Children should watch public executions.”
“More women need to prioritize motherhood.”
“Women should marry before 25 and prioritize bearing children over careers.”
“We should not send women into frontline combat or men into preschool education.”
“There are only two genders,” and “transgenderism and gender ‘fluidity’ are lies that hurt people and abuse kids.”
“Palestine doesn’t exist. It’s called Judea and Samaria.”
“There’s a gray area when it comes to consent, especially when alcohol is involved.”
“There is a war on men in this country… men are aimless and treated as second-class citizens.”
“If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he is qualified.’”
“I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. Think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that does a lot of damage.”
Kirk’s killing was wrong. For the Trump administration to applaud him, place flags at half-mast in his honor, and do so is dishonest because as it praises him, it fires the Melissa McCouls and so many others.
Wanting anything both ways is, and always has been, and always will be, a lie.
