Rumination’s on this time of political violence

By Maggie Block

I’m writing this on September 11 2025, a day after conservative media personality Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck and killed at his own event. And it wasn’t until I just wrote out today’s date that I realized that I am also writing this on the 24th anniversary of the tragic attack on the World Trade Towers in New York.

Society and a history of events are demanding that I think about violence today.

It is hard to talk honestly and soberly about Charlie Kirk’s death without being accused of insensitivity. A man who was radically insensitive in his remarks about how lives lost in mass shootings were necessary to insure we all retained the rights to bare arms, with no thought as to how such words would effect families whose children had died in mass shootings, now requires our care in sensitivity.

Never mind that he helped shape this country into one where any disturbed person intending to do harm can easily buy guns and bullets. Never mind he heralded dehumanizing rhetoric against women, Black people, undocumented people, LGBTQIA people; that he lived to flood our minds with words of violence, shaping his admirers brains to be more open to, excited even, about violence against anyone outside of his identities (white, male, straight, cisgender, Christian, American). He, and those who loved him, never ment for any of this violence to turn around and hurt him.

There are cries to end political violence.

But these cries are not calling for and end of violence against

• Palestinians

• Trans people, in particular Trans women, in particular Black Trans women

• Immigrants

• Indigenous women and girls

• Black communities by the hands of cops

• College students fighting for a more just world

• Girlfriends, wives, and daughters of violent men

• Pregnant people in red states

• Victims of climate catastrophes

• The poor, those experiencing homelessness, those going hungry

All of which as political. All of of which is unspeakably violent.

All of which has become common place, all of which our leaders classify as “acceptable.“

In a white supremacist christian nationalist world view what happened to Charlie Kirk was not acceptable. But that same violence wielded against a trans woman, a homeless person, an orphan in Palestine is acceptable. The only problem the people calling for an end to political violence see is who was in front of that particular bullet.

24 years ago, a tragedy struck New York, The United States, the “Western World.“ Hijacked airplanes struck the Twin Towers, causing explosions, which ultimately led to the towers falling. Another plane hit the US pentagon, and a forth was taken down before it could reach its intended destination of Camp David. As a result of those hijacked planes on this day 24 years ago, 246 passengers and crew aboard those planes died, 2,606 people died at the Twin Towers, and 125 people were killed at the pentagon. The potential that was lost when each one of them was taken too soon is insurmountable. The losses their friends and families will have to carry for the rest of their lives is unspeakable. These deaths were unacceptable.

Since 9/11/01 over 300 first responders have died from cancer related to the toxins they were exposed to at ground zero. And they had to fight tooth and nail to get the federal government to cover their medical costs. Their deaths were unacceptable.

In the unjustified war the United States waged against Afghanistan and Iraq, our violent reaction to the 9/11 attacks, 7,052 US soldiers were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable. 8,189 US military contractors were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable. 204,645 national police and military members were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable. 14,874 members of other allied military were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable. 296,858 opposition fighters were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable. 680 journalists, and 892 humanitarian workers were killed. Their deaths were unacceptable.

When Dick Cheney and his cronies fabricated weapons of mass destruction, sending off young people from the United State’s poorest families to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 363,939 civilians died. Their deaths were unacceptable.

Over 363,939 civilians died.

Their deaths were unacceptable.

But we do accept it.

Every year we promise never to forget those less than 3,000 people that were tragically lost that day. But when was the last time someone asked you to memorialize the 363,939 civilians that died senseless deaths in an unnecessary war? The number is inconceivable to wrap your mind around, but each one of those people were born to parents who dreamed of their brilliant futures. Each one of them laughed with people they loved. And cried over big and trivial things. Every one of them felt the breeze on their skin, looked up at skies filled with clouds and stars, and could hear their own pulse rushing through their ears when they exerted themselves.

All of the deaths I mentioned in this essay were preventable.

Every

Single

One

They tell us that targeted violence is the only way to keep us safe, that inflicting violence on others is the only way to prevent violence from effecting us.

They are lying

They are wrong

The violence Charlie Kirk advocated for did not protect him. The violence we inflicted on the unfathomable number of Iraqis and Afghans, has not protected us.

Violence destabilizes communities and individuals

Violence traumatizes and radicalizes

Violence creates the conditions that lead people to want to inflict more violence on those who hurt them.

We cannot continue to brutalize one another, if we want to experience peace and safety ourselves. We have to pick up the tools that Charlie Kirk hated, empathy and care. We have to build stability, care, and belonging for people who are being crushed in the gears of this capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist machine. We need to create meaningful opportunity for those who can only see despair in their future.

If we want to live in a world where violence doesn’t hurt us, we cannot inflict it on others. Neither ethically nor logically.

Charlie Kirk got the world he wanted, and it killed him.

I want a better world, will you build it with me?