One Year Ago Today

It feels like it just happened but it’s a year ago today that Charlie Kirk was assassinated in front of thousands of college students. It was one of those events that you remember where you were and how you felt. I was sitting on my couch with the television on in the background while I wrote a column for my blog. A reporter paused, looking concerned, turned to another reporter and said she is hearing that Charlie Kirk had been shot. I felt I had been shot. I jumped to my feet and cried, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”. I cried out to God to not let him die. I collapsed back on the couch repeating no, no, no over and over and begging for him to live. Shortly a reporter announced that Charlie had not survived, that Charlie Kirk had died. I sobbed. I sobbed for my loss, I sobbed for the loss to all of us.

We had already lost so many of our Conservative heroes. We lost Andrew Breitbart, we lost Rush Limbaugh, we’ve nearly lost Dennis Prager and then Charlie. But Charlie was a particularly unique loss. He was so young and he related to our young college students that were being indoctrinated into Marxism. The Left had to kill him because the kids were hearing him. More kids were voting Republican than ever before.

Charlie was a savant. I’ve never experienced someone who could quote Bible scripture, Constitutional law or history with the depth of knowledge of each he had. He was truly irreplaceable.

I picked up my phone and called Pastor Steve and asked him to pray with me for Charlie. I adored Pastor Steve. He was a retired military chaplain who served in combat. He had given last rights to dying soldiers. He had witnessed war and young soldiers being catastrophically wounded and killed. He had the most realistic view of the value of life and threat of evil I’ve seen in a minister. His sermons fed my soul.

I had met Charlie several times and we had him speak at my non-profit, American Freedom Alliance, about the left’s take over of our Universities. He and I spoke for some time on the patio outside our conference about how important it was to talk to our children with truth and love. I also, without knowing, had become a member of his church.

I had been looking for a church. I was disappointed in most churches because they weren’t addressing America’s moral decline. At the same time when California became a sanctuary state a group of us traveled around speaking to Town and City Councils to ask them to join the amicus brief against a Sanctuary State. We spoke to 23 Councils and 22 joined. The one that surprised me was Thousand Oaks. I considered Thousand Oaks a pretty conservative town. My daughter and her family lived there. My twin grandsons grew up there. Their Council declined to vote on the issue so we went back a second time to try to convince them. This time they voted not to join the brief and one Councilman stood and resigned from the Council because of their vote. One of my friends told me he was the minister of a Newbury Park church. I had found my church. That Councilman was Rob McCoy, Charlie’s minister. I attended his church until I moved to Arizona. Charlie spoke at Rob’s church several times while I was a member.

I was one of the hundreds of thousands who attended Charlie’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona. It was another event I’ll never forget (see HONORING CHARLIE KIRK in my blogs). I miss him as I miss members of my family and friends who have passed. I think of him often. I pause to watch his videos when they pop up on social media. I want more. We all needed more Charlie Kirk.