We don’t know how to mourn with those who mourn. To acknowledge tragedy without filtering it through a partisan framework. To consider how we have lost our way—and if it’s possible to find our way back again.

On September 10, 2025, a family was destroyed when Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. Two very small children lost their dad. A wife lost her husband. That same day, three students were rushed to the hospital in critical condition following another school shooting, this time at Evergreen High School in Denver, Colorado. One them was the shooter, who died of a self-inflicted injury.

The responses to Kirk’s death have been as mixed—and disturbing—as you might expect. Many among both his ideological allies and opponents offered heartfelt condolences and called for Americans to turn down the temperature on political rhetoric. Some on the far right have called Kirk’s death an act of martyrdom and an act of war. One MAGA-influenced pastor in the Nashville area raged and called for the return of public executions. Some on the far left have gloated over the death of a man they view as morally repugnant.

The students and faculty of Evergreen High School and their families were largely lost in the noise.

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