Dear Erika,
We doubt you will ever read this, but we felt the need to say it anyway.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your grief with the nation. We can’t imagine how difficult this week has been, and yet, by sharing your grief, you have humanized your husband to millions of Americans, defeating the caricatures and destroying the lies. This was deeply courageous. By defeating the caricatures of your husband, you defeat them for all of us.
Of course, at the same time, there will never be another Charlie Kirk.
Something is different about this. Your speech strikes us as a watershed moment in American culture. There is a seismic power shift occurring.
He didn’t deserve this. You didn’t. Your children didn’t. Your movement didn’t.
We shouldn’t need to say that, but sadly, we must. We have all seen the detestable hate. We have been shocked by it, frankly. You responded with love and forgiveness that leaves us in awe. What a model for a struggling nation! From your anecdote about his single gray hair to his faint smile, you made us feel like we all knew Charlie. This creates empathy, and, goodness knows, our country needs more of that.
The people hating on Charlie and conservatives in general won’t find their words landing on Monday like they did on Saturday. You ensured that. You also humanized the president with a simple hug. You brought out the father/grandfather in him.
Jackie Kennedy spoke to Life Magazine in heart-wrenching detail about her husband’s assassination. “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot…” You spoke to many tens of millions. That you had the composure to do so just days after your husband’s brutal death is a testament to your incredible faith and grace. Widows can bear testimony as no one else, but this can’t be easy when the crowds recede.
The Camelot is, in this telling of the tale, that shining city on a hill that your husband fought and died for. But your speech made us realize that you were both fighting a spiritual battle that is even greater. We all are.
In 1864, another assassinated President, Abraham Lincoln, wrote a letter to a mother who lost five sons in the Civil War. This letter was mentioned at your husband’s memorial, but it’s worth repeating.
“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”
This is no smaller a fight. Your husband’s movement has grown a million-fold through martyrdom. After Lincoln’s assassination, his widow “buried herself in mourning garb for the rest of her life.” You have vowed to expand the movement. Thank you. It’s needed, especially on campuses and with the youth, especially the post-COVID generation.
But that’s not all.
In one incredible speech of historic magnitude, you put spirituality back at the forefront of the American conversation.
How people choose to worship is up to them in our great democracy, of course, but you are a living and shining Christian example. By forgiving your husband’s killer in the extraordinarily moving way you did, you defeated the left’s most insidious stereotypes about Christians. You live your faith. Secular America needs this message in a world of soulless materialism. Many people are seeking more meaning in their lives, and we think the seed you planted will grow far and wide.
Your message directed toward young women is also deeply impactful.
In the 1970s and 1980s, women were inundated with Hollywood’s destructive messages against faith, men, and family. The outdated feminist mythology held that, to be strong and empowered, women needed to denigrate or exclude men. This ideology has been devastating to society. Some young women paid a big price for this lie.
In one speech, you demolished that lie as well. You can be a strong woman, including one with a career or vocation, and also be a loving partner to a man who is devoted to family. You demolished the lie that conservative women aren’t strong (you’re fierce).
You put the American family back at the center of the national conversation as well.
Your marriage to your husband is inspirational. Your love for each other and partnership are deeply moving. Thank you for modeling that kind of partnership for young women and men, who badly need it, in a world of brokenness, isolation, and video games. Spouses aren’t rivals, as you advised, but they do have their own roles.
You are the modern definition of feminism. It is time we take those words back.
Thank you for all of this. Again, you will probably never read this missive from Wisconsin, but, in a world of detestable comment threads, we simply felt it needed to be said.
Thank you.
