Dear Editor,
At a troubling moment in our country’s history, last Saturday’s prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk at the Putnam County Courthouse rightly called for unity. The event was heartfelt and sincere, but we have a long road ahead if we are to achieve true unity in our county, never mind our nation.
Some sections of our community eagerly attended the vigil while others stayed away, sensing anything but unity in the gathering.
True unity requires reaching out to people with whom we have little contact and who may think differently than we do. It means listening as well as talking. It means humility as well as conviction. We need to put our faith to a stiffer test.
The genius of America is the freedom to pursue our beliefs without coercion; to evangelize to others but respect different convictions, held no less fervently. It is a motto of our nation: E pluribus unum, “Out of many, one.” It is contradictory — to be both passionate in one’s own beliefs and just as ready to defend the free speech of others with whom we disagree.
But that is the essence of American democracy that attracted every creed on Earth to our shores. All become American citizens, but our creeds now are no less various. We are not a theocracy or a one-party state, and we are stronger for it. An attitude of win-at-all-costs is the road to ruin, and what the freedoms enshrined in our constitution by the founders sought to guard against.
Putnam County’s Charlie Kirk vigil was a step in the right direction, an honest attempt to come together for prayer and reflection at a time of wrenching sadness and dislocation. It is now up to all of us to build on this first step.
We must work through matters of deep and sincere disagreement, not waive them away. We will not always “win” the argument but perhaps we will emerge with greater mutual respect. We need new forums to shake us out of our conservative or liberal, black or white, religious or secular comfort zones.
The organizers of the vigil stepped out on faith in a spirit of healing. Let us push forward now by truly reaching out to our neighbors: worshipping at a church service of another denomination or on the “other side of town,” attending a meeting of the “other” political party, or breaking bread with an ideological stranger.
We all have a lot to teach and a lot to learn. We must not give victory to the assassins, would-be slayers of ideas as well as men. We must recover some American common ground.
Charlie Kirk stood for many things — many of which I disagree with — but one was honest debate. Let that be his legacy in Putnam County and across the world.
Richard Garrett, Putnam County Commissioner, District 2