My friend Charlie Kirk, the indispensable man killed for seeking truth

It feels like just yesterday that America lost Charlie Kirk.I remember every detail vividly.Charlie and I were in daily contact that week as he prepared for his next national campus speaking tour.I was part of an intimate Zoom meeting he had organized the night prior to its first stop, at Utah Valley University.Less than 24 hours later, it was the site of his murder.Everything about the assassination was astonishing: The unconscionable security failure from the campus police and Charlie’s detail, the fact he was killed while modeling robust and respectful debate, the utterly depraved nature of the act and the apparent transgender-related motive of the accused killer.I broke down in tears when I heard the news.One year later, it still seems like a bad dream.Charlie died as a martyr for free speech, a bedrock ideal of the country he loved so much.He was a thought leader, an institution builder and a grassroots-mobilization visionary.The cranks and kooks overrunning the online right today are a sad testament to the void he left behind: Charlie, the guardian of the floodgates, was the conservative coalition’s indispensable man.I feel Charlie’s glaring absence every day.And one year later, it’s clear that far too many Americans still haven’t learned the right lessons from his martyrdom.The first of these: the essential importance of free speech.When Charlie was killed, he was sitting under a canopy emblazoned with his slogan, “Prove me wrong.”All he ever wanted to do was have a conversation — especially with the liberals who disagreed with him.Charlie exposed lefty logical fallacies and shattered socialist shibboleths, but he always did so with poise, grace and a winsome smile on his face.A society that cannot abide polite conversations about the pressing issues of the day is a society that cannot endure.That’s especially true when the faction of society most unwilling to abide such a conversation is its would-be future leaders — namely, university ...