Charlie Kirk assassination isn’t the first time in America that powerful speech led to a speaker’s death.

“Our freedom of speech is freedom or death…” (Chuck D., rapper, Public Enemy)

The exercise of free speech brought death on a Utah college campus last week. It was minutes past high noon on Wednesday, Sept. 10 when Charlie Kirk — 31-year-old husband, father, commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, had his speech silenced by an assassin’s bullet.

Three thousand or so mostly excited and mostly young people filled an outdoor venue in the shadow of Utah’s majestic Wasatch Range to hear Charlie Kirk speak freely, and to speak freely right back at him.

That was Charlie’s MO. He went before groups of people, boldly proclaimed his views and listened to those who disagreed. In fact, he was well known for inviting the people who disagreed to “come to the front of the line,” grab the microphone and “prove me wrong.” Charlie Kirk events were a festival of the free exchange of ideas, discussion, debate and learning.

Charlie Kirk was the living, breathing embodiment of the free exchange of ideas. He debated aggressively, but usually with a smile on his face and always with an obvious respect for the human dignity of all, perhaps especially those who disagreed most vehemently.

And boy was Charlie Kirk’s speech powerful. Many believe that Trump would not have been elected but for the huge numbers of the 18-34 demographic ushered onto the Trump train by Charlie Kirk’s masterful marshaling of facts, clear delivery, passion, charisma, confidence, respect and perhaps above all, love.

It has been reported that the same day the single bullet ripped through the left side of Charlie Kirk’s neck and the blood gushed, he spoke about his faith. With some of his last words, Kirk detailed the core of his message and the source of his beliefs: love, Jesus and prayer.

This isn’t the first time in America that powerful speech led to a speaker’s death.

Some are still around who remember exactly where they were when they learned that JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed.

JFK’s goal of getting Americans to the moon outlived him and was accomplished within his optimistic one-decade timeline. RFK’s passion for an end to the war in Vietnam was realized. MLK’s dream of freedom ringing across our land is being lived out by millions.

Other Americans died at the hands of those who sought to silence our freedom with acts of violence at Pearl Harbor and in NYC on 9/11. The dates of these deaths live on in infamy.

Perhaps 9-10-25 also will be a day that lives in infamy.

The former slave, activist and author Frederick Douglas exercised his freedom of speech shortly before the Civil War in 1860 to proclaim: “No right was deemed by the fathers of the government more sacred than the right of free speech. It was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and government.”

Maybe Charlie Kirk’s speech wasn’t silenced. Maybe it was only interrupted. Perhaps others will speak up like Charlie and the free expression of ideas will permeate the land — even on college campuses.

Maybe this tragic loss will inspire us all to speak freely and boldly about the moral renovation of society and government.

Charlie Kirk would like that.

Philip S. Bovee is an attorney and writer who has lived in Pahrump since 2023.