What a stupid idea.

The news sent me deep into a rewrite of one of my previous novels, the best place I go to escape sadness.

The horror of Charlie Kirk’s assassination left level-headed people aghast. I mean, how can anyone celebrate the death of another human being—guilty of nothing more than standing up for traditional values.

Marriage. Raising children. Love of country, and love of God.

I knew Charlie only at the periphery of his work, hearing his views on podcasts and watching some appearances on the news channels.

I knew he witnessed to millions of young people trying to make sense of the chaotic world around them. At the core of what he espoused was deep religious faith, and the willingness to dialogue with each other. Calmly. Respectfully. He spoke his mind and was assassinated for it. Who can take issue with a guy like that? Not me.

What I mourn as much as Charlie’s death are the sentiments of those Americans who are glad he died. This is antithetical to humanity—to our culture, which stands up for life, not death.

The label fascist is being thrown around our society far too cavalierly in my opinion. When we demonize each other, what are we to expect?

And what did Charlie’s assassin really accomplish? For one, it revealed the attacker’s intellectual bankruptcy. Assassination can’t win arguments. Instead, it turned Charlie, heretofore a controversial pundit, into a martyr—a champion of free expression under threat.

The greatest “threat to our democracy” is not President Donald Trump, in my opinion. It’s not the Republican Party or conservative values. And it certainly isn’t a 31-year-old man named Charlie Kirk. Rather, it’s our attempts to vilify one another and our beliefs. We stand at the precipice of losing our democracy when we silence each other’s voices.

I mean, any student of history knows this.

Instead of stamping out Charlie’s voice, the shooter amplified it. Since Charlie’s murder, there have been 37,000 applications for new chapters of Turning Point USA. Assassination is cowardly, always self-defeating, and stupid. (Although, I make an exception for Hitler, who so many people stupidly compare our current President to. In this case, we all would’ve applauded someone taking Hitler out.)

Consider the testimony of history, which is being repeated in the case of Charlie Kirk:

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination did not accomplish Booth’s intention—to revive the Confederate cause. Rather, his bullet turned Mr. Lincoln into a martyr and sealed the Confederacy’s place on the wrong side of history forever.

Further, Lincoln planned to pursue a policy of national reconciliation and leniency for the Southern states. Instead, his death empowered Radical Republicans to impose a harsher Reconstruction on the South, crippling its future prospects.

Pretty stupid, John Wilkes Booth.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination ignited the nation’s grief and disgust with the political violence and climate of hatred that was sweeping through the country like a wildfire. His ideals—peace, civil rights, and reconciliation—were amplified, not silenced. His calls for justice and unity became rallying cries for a generation, and are embraced by clear-minded people to this day.

Senator Kennedy’s murder didn’t squelch his cause. Rather, it infused it with urgency.

Again, a stupid, senseless, self-defeating act of political violence.

Former Beatle John Lennon was murdered by an assassin who sought fame by extinguishing another man’s light. Foolish, Mark David Chapman. All you did was immortalize John and bring about universal revulsion for your deed. You simply turned a beloved musician into a cultural icon whose music and enduring calls for peace, love, and non-violence have only grown louder. You have gained a secluded, solitary space to keep reading Catcher in the Rye, while John’s legacy continues to flourish.

Your feeble attempt to gain significance proves that attempts to smother, art, ideas, or influence belong on the garbage heap of America’s history. (Sorry…I can rant on this one all day. Anyone who knows me will tell you—I’m a huge Beatle fan.)

And there’s the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump. All this attack did was energize his base and draw sympathy from his opponents who properly abhor violence. Instead of silencing him, Mr. Trump’s would-be assassin handed him a megaphone of influence. His supporters rallied, and his message gained renewed attention. The attempt on his life turned Trump from a polarizing figure into a symbol of resilience and survival under fire.

And yes, we must never forget the father in the crowd that day who lost his life protecting his children.

I could go on—the list, sadly, is long. Teddy Roosevelt. James Garfield. William McKinley. John Kennedy. And so many others.

Instead of celebrating a death, like some, let’s join in lifting prayers for Charlie Kirk’s family. The politics of it all will be sorted out in time. It always is with assassinations.