By Paul Bean

Vermonters who met Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA events in Vermont remember the assassinated conservative influencer as faith-inspiring and uplifting. 

Aaron Warner, who attended Kirk’s visit to a Williston church, recalled that his event security team said that “Charlie Kirk has received death threats on more than one occasion. Having familiarized myself with Charlie it seems those opposed to him are threatened by his message more than the man himself.”

“I am heartbroken, completely devastated, over the news of Charlie Kirk’s passing,” writes Samatha Atwood on Facebook, who met Kirk at Ignite Church in Williston, in June, 2021. The former state representative from Orange County said that “His belief in me gave me opportunities I never could have imagined and helped me see so much more potential within myself. Meeting him many times—and even having the privilege of spending time with his wonderful mother-in-law, Lori—were blessings I will carry with me always. His encouragement and faith in me shaped my path more than words can ever express. My prayers are with his wife, Erika, their beautiful children, and all who loved him. Charlie’s impact on my life and so many others will never be forgotten.”

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot in a targeted attack at Utah Valley University yesterday (9/10), intensifying concerns over political violence in America.

Kirk, a 31-year-old prominent political commentator and close ally of President Donald Trump, was killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The assassination occurred while Kirk was addressing a crowd of about 3,000 people as part of his American Comeback Tour. 

A single shot, believed to have been fired from a rooftop about 200 yards away, struck Kirk in the neck, leading to his death at a nearby hospital. The suspect remains at large.

His death has struck the nation with grief, anger, and sadness, particularly among young conservatives who were his main followers. 

“I truly hope this is a wake-up call for everyone; regardless of your affiliation. This is not our time to fight each other; it’s our time to fight the government structures that put us in this position,” said user @leigha on X, who attended the Ignite church event. “ …I met Charlie Kirk when I was a young teenager & he inspired many of my politics from a very young age…Rest in Peace, @charliekirk11. From age 13, you have been a huge inspiration in my life.” 

“This man was a brave soul, and brilliant. Now he is a martyr. Charlie Kirk was a hero warrior. My heart is broken,” writes John Klar on Facebook yesterday.

“Charlie was a great man who loved his family and America,” writes former RNC committeeman Jay Shepherd of Essex Junction, who knew Kirk from helping to plan various TPUSA events.  “Charlie would give you his full attention during a conversation whether you were the President or someone he just met on the street. America will miss his voice. I enjoyed being around him and always felt his energy.”

“The heartbreaking assassination of Charlie Kirk is a painful reminder, to all of us, of why increasing polarization is so dangerous and can lead to political violence,” Governor Phil Scott wrote on social media this morning…There is no doubt, our nation is broken. But, we’ve experienced difficult situations before and have shown just how powerful our country is when we are united, listen to the perspectives of others, treat each other with respect, and rise above the dangerous rhetoric we’re seeing more often.”

Kirk visited the Green Mountain State to speak at least twice. Read Warner’s story about the Ignite Church visit here.

Kirk also visited Vermont back in October 2021 for his Exposing Critical Racism Tour, where the Arizona resident and Chicago native told the crowd that he “grew up coming here, visiting Lake Champlain. It’s one of the most beautiful states in the country. It’s one of God’s gifts to America,” Kirk said. “Your politics are a totally different story.”

“Wow! This is Vermont?” Kirk told the standing, cheering mixed crowd of college students and older people that filled the ballroom at the Doubletree – Hilton (the former Sheraton). “I wasn’t sure what to expect in Bernie Sanders’ hometown.”

In typical Kirk fashion, he also pointed out all of the wonderful things about Vermont including the practice of Town Meeting Day, “the good, the true, the beautiful, the local and the decentralized, not the foreign and the corrupt.”

Some personal thoughts: 

I would like to share that the past few weeks in the media have been quite devastating, demoralizing, and hard to cover. It seems like day after day, we are hearing horrific event after horrific event. 

When Charlie was killed yesterday, many of us were still getting over the death of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, who was stabbed in the neck on a train in Charlotte’s  by a perpetrator that had been arrested and released 14 times. We cannot forget about her in the wake of Kirk’s death either. 

I don’t really recommend doing this, but out of respect for both Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zrautska, both genuinely innocent people, I watched the footage of both their murders. 

For many of us these videos were impossible to avoid on social media, however in the past I have elected to not watch such videos entirely or even at all because they are just too graphic. I know millions others have done the same as I, because we have reached a point where we can no longer just choose to look away. 

Watching Iryna get stabbed in her neck, realize what had happened to her, start crying, and slowly watch her faint to her demise while her blood pooled on the floor of the train, is something I will never be able to unsee. She was as innocent as can be, on her way home from a shift at the pizza parlor.

Seeing Charlie Kirk speaking at a college campus, and suddenly taking a bullet to the neck and his blood shooting out while everyone is screaming, is something I will never be able to unsee. 

You may find these descriptions to be gruesome and disturbing. You might also say that a “break from social media” is necessary. (Perhaps).

The reason I went through with viewing these is because millions of our children are seeing this. 

These young Americans whose lives were gone too soon and they deserve to be suffered with. 

These are young Americans whose death is the result of extreme policy failure and an increasingly violent ‘left wing.’

This last year I’ve had many friends come to me and say that they really liked Charlie Kirk and his message. This was coming from people that were not even political in the slightest. I knew that it was because of social media and his reach there that my friends had found him. 

A recent reaction to these murders I thought summed up the past few days quite well:

“Iryna Zrautska was your sister. Your daughter. Your girlfriend. Charlie Kirk?  Was you.”

As a young “conservative influencer” here in the Green Mountain State, I agree. 

For many years I’ve looked up to Charlie Kirk. I’ve watched his videos, learned from him, and I’ve adopted many of his viewpoints. In fact, in recent weeks multiple people have advised me to be more like Charlie Kirk…

His message was of peace, responsibility, civil discourse, and all of the values we feel are at threat here in America. 

A friend of Charlie’s recently posted on X what Charlie said his mission was. He said:

“My job every single day is actively trying to stop a revolution. This is where you have to try to point them towards ultimate purposes and towards getting back to the church, getting back to faith, getting married, having children. That is the type of conservatism that I represent, and I’m trying to paint a picture of virtue of lifting people up, not just staying angry.”

My prayer today is that we do not just stay angry, and that his message and mission lives through this entire generation and American generations to come.