A message to my fellow Alaskans: Criticism of the deceased is not condonation of their murder.
There is no place for the acceptance of the murder or public execution of any human, whether it is an unarmed civilian, an unarmed criminal, a politician, or an influencer. To the latter, if there has been endorsement of what happened, that is reprehensible, but most of what I have seen is not celebration, but a factual pushback against attempts to raise him to the status of martyr, with many posts from his supporters not just mourning his death, but insisting that he is above criticism by describing him as a “great American” and a “man of God.”
You are welcome to have those opinions, but these things are also true: He advocated for the person who violently attacked Paul Pelosi, created a “Watch List” of educators he didn’t like (resulting in numerous death and sexual assault threats), and shrugged off school shootings as a necessary cost of current interpretations of the Second Amendment.
Some people see no issue, or at least turn a blind eye, to these and many other aspects of his history. That DOES NOT mean anyone who does not share in your mourning is celebrating his death. Even he criticized the dead while condemning violence: “ … (George Floyd) was a scumbag. Now, does that mean he deserves to die? … of course not.”
We see the hypocrisy; we will not be vilified for a difference of opinion, and we will not be denied our First Amendment rights under the guise of false moral superiority.
If you want to lionize a man who built his brand on inflammatory speech, divisive rhetoric, and manufactured outrage, then those to whom his verifiable words have brought suffering have every right to push back against the narrative that he was a faultless individual.
I look forward to the day when this outrage toward murder is universal and no longer partisan.
Andrew Kline lives in Soldotna.
