A week marked by the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks has left many Americans carrying grief they cannot easily name.
This past week, Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. The following day, our nation observed the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, which claimed the lives of 2,977 people in New York, the Pentagon, and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
May we draw as near as circumstances allow to sit with those who suffer, speak the names of loved ones, and remind them that grief does not have to be carried alone.
Though different in scale and circumstance, both events serve a stark reminder: evil never remains theoretical. It eventually enters a crowd, a cockpit, an office, or a home, leaving behind blood, unanswered questions, and an empty chair.
Public trauma always becomes private sorrow, one household at a time.
In response to such tragedies, societies naturally turn to investigations, arguments, and demands for accountability. We should seek truth and justice. Evil must be named without apology. Yet grief should not have to pass an ideological examination before we treat it as grief.
