At a Crossroads in America
Allison Silberberg's Plain Talk
At a Crossroads in America
By Allison Silberberg
September 16, 2025
The shooting death of Charlie Kirk is tragic, shocking, and unthinkable. We must condemn all political violence. Political violence leads to other violence. As Governor Spencer Cox of Utah said, it metastasizes.
We must remember who we are and who we strive to be. As Americans, we value freedom of speech. It is sacrosanct in our country. While I abhor Charlie Kirk’s statements and positions, we must allow the airing of different perspectives even when we disagree with another’s viewpoints. It is a difficult idea in practice if someone’s words cause us pain. For some, Charlie Kirk’s words made sense, but for many of us, myself included, his words caused tremendous pain and division. In our country, a person has the right to speak their mind as long as their speech does not incite violence. (Supreme Court decision of Brandenburg v. Ohio) That is the law of the land. That is the demarcation line.
Because of instantaneous technology, footage of Charlie Kirk’s murder has been seen by millions of people in our country and around the world.
This was a live murder, not a scene from “Gladiator,” “Braveheart,” or “The Bourne Identity.” That alone is shocking.
Even before an alleged shooter was identified, there were assumptions made about the shooter’s motives and political beliefs. President Trump immediately blamed “the radical left.” Now that a suspect, Tyler Robinson, is in custody, Trump and his administration are using the Kirk murder to blame groups not aligned with the president’s agenda. Trump said, “If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right. When you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag-burnings all over the place – that’s the left. That’s not the right.” He added, “We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder.” Yesterday, Vice President Vance echoed these sentiments, stating that there is “a growing powerful minority on the far left.”
We still don’t even know for certain what drove the alleged killer to commit this crime.
Setting aside that such blame was complete conjecture on Trump’s part, what does that say to the public? HBCUs are now getting threats across the country. They had to shut down out of safety concern, and by all accounts, they had nothing to do with this.
Furthermore, instead of being part of “the radical left,” Tyler Robinson might actually have been part of the far-right movement known as Groyper? Talk about irony. It has been reported that Tyler Robinson was an active member of Groyper, which is a white nationalist group led by Nick Fuentes, who is a proud neo-Nazi. Fuentes has had a very public feud for years with Charlie Kirk. To Fuentes, Kirk wasn’t MAGA enough.
What if Tyler Robinson is part of Groyper and the MAGA world? One of their own? If this is the case, then what will Trump and others do with that information? Will Trump still insist that it was “the radical left” that perpetrated this crime even if Tyler Robinson was actually a “radical right” Groyper believer? Let’s not fall for Trump’s narrative, which at this time is baseless.
Here are a few other points to consider. The first bits of information in a crisis are often inaccurate. Despite a world of word salad and gamesmanship, Governor Cox of Utah did an excellent job of keeping the public informed in clear, concise statements and definitely provided a humanizing perspective, plus a warning that social media is out of control. His remarks at that point were a measured response in contrast to Trump’s kneejerk reaction.
Lest we forget, this murder is only the latest in a string of political violence in our country. Melissa Hortman, the Democratic Speaker of the House in Minnesota, and her husband were shot dead in their home. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was fire bombed. Men have been convicted of planning to kidnap and torture and kill Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was nearly bludgeoned to death by an intruder who was looking to murder Nancy Pelosi in their home. Congressman Steve Scalise and others were shot during a baseball practice on a field in my city when I was mayor.
There is often bipartisan condemnation of such acts of violence. For example, Democrats immediately joined Republicans in condemning the two assassination attempts on Trump’s life that occurred last year. Where was Trump’s indignation when Hortman and her husband were assassinated? Were flags placed at half-mast for them?
We all need to be asking what kind of country do we want to live in. Do we want to live in a world of vigilantism? Where does the political violence end?
All of us need to be careful and measured with our words. In a disturbing development yesterday, when Trump announced that he and his administration would crack down on and destroy progressive groups and individuals, he showed that he is manipulating the murder of Charlie Kirk as an excuse to “destroy” any opposition and his perceived enemies. The New York Times reported that Trump’s aides had now outlined a plan to label left-wing groups as domestic terrorist organizations. This is a clear display of authoritarianism. Instead, we need leaders who are not inflaming and politicizing this recent tragedy but rather focused on the protection of our democracy.
We need to remember that we all want many of the same things. We want to enjoy our lives, to work and support our families, to realize our potential, to have safe streets and great schools, to ensure that our children are healthy and happy and educated, to have clean water and air, and to be free from war, and to thrive. Ultimately, we believe in the Constitution and its First Amendment that guarantees freedom of speech, as difficult as that can be at times.
As a nation, we must reject and denounce political violence and vigilantism. We are better than this.
These are stressful and uncertain times in our country. We can stop the madness. We must insist on the truth. We must organize and speak out.
Let’s remember that each of us has the right and even an obligation to speak out as Americans for what we believe. This is not a time to allow fear of personal or political reprisals to suppress this Constitutional right of all Americans.
Allison Silberberg is a writer and public affairs/public policy consultant. She served as mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, 2016-2019. Her work includes working on staff on Capitol Hill for Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (D-TX). She is the author of “Visionaries In Our Midst: Ordinary People who are Changing our World,” which hit #1 on Amazon’s List for Philanthropy & Charity. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, on PBS.org. To learn more, please visit: www.allisonsilberberg.com
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