A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Charlie Kirk’s death has led to a range of emotions – anger, sorrow, fear, vindication. Uncertainty is another as Americans wait and worry about whether there will be more political violence. NPR’s Liz Baker has been collecting some of that reaction.
LIZ BAKER, BYLINE: In July, an NPR/PBS/Marist poll found that 73% of respondents believed political violence was a major problem. That survey was taken right after two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers and their families were shot in their homes. Jackie Hunter, who took part in the poll, says things have only gotten worse.
JACKIE HUNTER: We’re living in a very scary time.
BAKER: Hunter is a security officer at a Fresno, California, high school. He’s worried the Kirk assassination, which happened on a university campus, will make his students feel less safe. Garrett Yoshida from Birmingham, Alabama, doesn’t trust either political party or the media to cool the rhetoric.
GARRETT YOSHIDA: We aren’t getting anything solved, and quality of life is not getting any better for people. Mental health is getting worse, and here we are.
BAKER: Tom Earl from Baltimore, Maryland, says, as a 70-year-old Black man who remembers the killings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, it’s not worth wading into the fray.
TOM EARL: This is a time for us to just sit back. We should let everybody else comment on that.
BAKER: A lot of people we spoke to refused to go on the record about the Charlie Kirk assassination because of the public vilification that’s flared up against anyone saying anything critical about Kirk’s legacy. That’s why Miles asked NPR to use his first name only to re-air his comment on Boston Member Station GBH’s midday talk show.
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MILES: Kirk himself was a part of the political project that was trying to take dignity away from many people in this country. Nobody should face violence for speech like this, but I think that is being flattened in our appraisal of this.
BAKER: Jessie Williams never paid attention to Kirk before he was killed. But since his death, Williams has been listening back to Kirk’s old interviews. Williams disagrees with a lot Kirk had to say, but says Kirk deserved to be heard.
JESSIE WILLIAMS: This is a sorrowful period of time, and I’m fearful, actually. Who knows where this is going to go?
BAKER: Charlie Kirk was a complicated individual, noted Williams. Reaction to his death is complicated, too. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
