On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed five miles from my home. Myself and the people I love were greatly affected by this event. Whether that be fear, trauma, or anger, I’ve seen those I love hurting.
I don’t know what the man who shot that gun hoped to accomplish, but I do know that he hurt a lot more than just one person. I don’t know why he chose to kill another human. However, in my opinion it was a result of dehumanization.
For as long as I have paid attention to the politics of our country, I have noticed an abhorrence when it comes to the opinion of opposing political parties. All I hear is “they’re wrong”, “they’re evil”, “they must be stupid”, “we know better”. All of this rhetoric makes me hear one thing: those that think differently than us are less than human.
Why are we treating people with a different opinion than our own, like they don’t deserve empathy? Why are we putting ourselves on a pedestal? Why are we screaming instead of listening?
I am of course guilty of this. There have been times where I so strongly disagree with someone, that I begin to loathe every word that comes out of their mouth. There have been times where I have found it difficult to love someone I can’t agree with. I don’t want to feel empathy for them. I don’t want to listen to them. Why should I listen if I don’t agree? Why should they deserve love?
But what if we stopped thinking like this? What if we loved everyone? What if we believed even those different from us deserve to be treated the same as us?
We need to step off our pedestal.
We need to open our hearts.
We need to treat those who think differently than us as human.
Because when we act like our rivals, those with opposing opinions, are less than us, are less than human, are evil, that is dangerous. That is when hatred takes over. That is when we dehumanize.
The detrimental results of the shooting at Utah Valley University, so close to my home, have triggered me to start thinking differently. To start trying to love those I don’t agree with.
In my opinion Charlie Kirk was dehumanized. The man behind that gun believed he was killing an evil monster. But he wasn’t. He was killing a human.
In our world today, so many people are being actively dehumanized. So many aspects of politics today are disregarding the lives of people. Withholding empathy for those who look different, think different, act different from us.
It shouldn’t matter if you’re republican or democrat, red or blue, brown or white, we are all human. And we all deserve to be treated as such. I’m trying to taking a step off my pedestal, I’m trying to open my heart, I’m asking everyone to do the same.
