Friends,
Today, we awake to the aftermath of yet another brutal act of political violence.
Whatever one thinks of Charlie Kirk’s views, the murder of the 31-year-old founder of the nation’s leading right-wing youth movement should shock us all. Another brutal, public shooting on an American college campus. A wife and two young children whose worlds have been shattered.
We don’t yet know who pulled the trigger or their motive, but we do know they have sent shockwaves across a fragile America. A personal catastrophe for Kirk’s family with which we empathize, yesterday’s shooting is also a catastrophe for our country where violence is too often now an extension of political argument.
The assassination of Melissa Hortman, Minnesota’s House Speaker, and her husband. The murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, two fellows at the Israeli Embassy in DC. The attack on a hostage vigil in Colorado. Assassination attempts on President Trump. The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. The attack on Paul Pelosi. The January 6 insurrection. The list goes on.
In the words of Ezra Klein: “Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all. The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that.”
We cannot be blind. And we specifically cannot be blind to the risk of what’s to come.
The ever-rising level of partisanship, fear and extremism in our country threatens the very fabric of our nation.
I’m of course dismayed by fringe voices on social media who celebrated yesterday's barbarity. I’m even more deeply concerned about the potential response from our president who appears to be laying the groundwork not for healing or introspection, but for retribution against political opponents and the “radical left.”
We must be ready to stand up to any effort by this administration to exploit this event as a pretext to pursue its authoritarian agenda.
For all its brutality, political violence only drives us further from the solutions we desperately need. Cycles of vengeance and retaliation spiral until they consume everything in their path.
Against this backdrop, we must be ready to defend the core freedoms that define this country and establish our democracy. We must protect our diversity and the right to freedom of speech, even when we don’t agree with what’s being said.
And in this moment, we must seek out and elevate champions with the courage to rise above the cacophony, to call us back to our better angels, and lead us toward a more perfect union.
Despite the threats we face and the most extreme voices at the political fringes, I hold fast to this core belief: The vast majority of people in this country and around the world are good, decent, empathetic human beings. In the never-ending struggle within our souls, and within our communities, between good and evil, compassion and prejudice, love and hate, I do believe most people will choose the side of decency.
The road ahead will not be easy. The temptation to give up, to retreat from public life or to answer hatred with more hatred is strong. But if we are to honor the memory of those whose lives have been stolen by violence, we must resist that temptation.
We must refuse to join the loudest fringes in the gutter. We must insist on something better and stronger – on the possibility of community even in the face of division.
That is not naïve optimism. It is, I believe, the only path forward.
Yours,
Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street
