Sept. 12, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: Charlie Kirk was a champion of our constitutional right to free speech and an advocate for open political discourse. He was assassinated for those very qualities and for reason of his effectiveness in opening social, religious and political discourse between the students in our country’s high schools and colleges.
Upon learning of his death, my wife’s and my minds were immediately drawn back to what we witnessed at Buena Vista’s annual Labor Day “debate” this year. There, no less than a howling mob heckled and “shouted down” the state’s lieutenant governor … our second-highest elected official, a Marine veteran, Christian, mother and Black woman. The ferocity and the roar of their invectives prevented the audience from hearing any of Mrs. Earl-Sears’ statement of her views on campaign issues. So she was forced to leave the gathering unheard, which was the mob’s purpose.
The discourtesy was not repeated when her opponent, Representative Spanburger took the rostrum.
I was appalled, disgusted, embarrassed, infuriated … and frankly frightened … by what I witnessed that morning. And now, upon reflection, the similarities between those two events should be plainly apparent to the reader. In both cases, the underlying purpose was to silence opposing political speech.
These sorts of occurrences are common in dictatorial countries that abide no political opposition or dissent. But here in America, in semi-rural Rockbridge County!
It makes one want to weep for his (her/their) country.
An earlier writer to your newspaper used the words “lack of decorum” when excusing those who silenced their political opposition that morning. I believe it goes much deeper than that. To me, it would be better described as having been a dissolution of the norms of our civil society, caused by polarized, hate-filled, intolerant extremists.
RIP Charlie Kirk. LARRY C. WIESE Lexington
