Pax Vobiscum

I've taken the time to take a few breaths, to compose myself, to reflect on the events of yesterday. I don't normally talk about politics or current events in public anymore and, if I'm being fair, I probably won't start now. However, I thought I'd sum up my feelings about where we are in history.

I think all of us are aware that we are at an inflection point, not only nationally but globally. The global order post cold war is in upheaval, economic dogma is being challenged and there is a battle for the future direction of society. Change is chaotic and, at it's worst, a violent process - always. It is the antithesis of order by definition.

Enter into this maelstrom one Charlie Kirk. A man who, even if you disagreed with him, should have been respected as a bastion of our Western ideals because he encouraged dialogue and debate as the battlefield of ideas. In the past, and perhaps in the future, new paradigms were birthed in violence. The Fall of Rome, The Bolshevik Revolution, The Great Leap Forward, The French Revolution - the list goes on and on. It is a unique trait of Western Democracies, and the United States in particular, that we've attempted to solve our difference through intellectual sparring rather than violence. This was the ideal that Charlie Kirk held most dear and, while I didn't know him personally at all, I'd venture to say he held this ideal above all else but God.

I sincerely hope that all will reflect on this ideal and appeal to the better side of our natures. I understand and feel the anger, the hate, the darkness, the depression and all the other evils that life and Satan can throw at us to challenge us. Beyond words is a yawning portal of darkness and death that I fervently pray we do not open. I am blessed to know people with whom I both agree and disagree...I'm even related to some of them. As a man of faith. As a father. As a proud American. And as a man who has known violence. I wish peace on all of you and that all people of good will grow closer from this not farther apart.

Rest In Peace Charlie Kirk