Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, our weekly column in which writers share a poem or a paragraph that all of us should commit to heart. Today, in the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, Will Rahn reflects on a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy after the assassination of a man with whom he didn’t always see eye to eye.
“I may not agree with Charlie Kirk on politics, but. . .”
“I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said, but. . .”
We’ve all heard a version of this sentence in the last couple days. The hedging, from those who are keen to express their horror at the assassination of a 31-year-old conservative activist—but even keener to reject any possible association with his views. (Views that, it’s worth mentioning, he shared with millions of Americans.) Perhaps America’s problem is encapsulated by these caveats: Signaling our tribe is more important than basic human decency.
How should you respond to a political assassination?
