After A Little Beacon Blog published the clip of the reaction from Pastor Howard-John Wesley who is Black, in which the Pastor decried the federal order to lower the American flag to half-staff, several readers of A Little Beacon Blog wrote in asking if Beacon status of the flags really recognized the assassination of CK, or if they were soley for 9/11. Therefore, ALBB reached out to both the Beacon City School District, and to the City of Beacon for their official reasons for lowering the flag to half-staff.
Beacon Superintendent Landahl responded: “The BCSD had flags at half-staff from Thursday-Sunday for 9/11 and the President's order. District/board policy is that flags are flown at half-staff when ordered by President, Governor, or local official.” The BCSD is known to be an inclusive and supportive school of many groups of people, including the LGBTQ community, African American, Hispanic and Asian communities, children who learn differently, emotional learning, etc.
The City of Beacon’s Administrator Chris White did not respond to ALBB’s inquiry. Nor was it posted on their website, Facebook, or sent via robo-call.
On September 10th (Wednesday), The 47th president made a proclamation ordering flags to half-staff for all public buildings until September 14th (Saturday).
Last Friday, after publishing Pastor Wesley’s video to Vimeo, a video platform that lets ALBB embed videos in these articles for you to view right here, Vimeo terminated ALBB’s entire account (not just the video) two minutes after uploading it for guidelines violations. Vimeo has not stated which spoken word violated their guidelines, and have not yet reversed their decision, though ALBB is appealing.
What Did The Pastor and ALBB Say?
This writer commented how it felt uncomfortable driving and walking around Beacon with flags lowered for a man who was so offensive and harmful to several groups of people (African Americans, LGBTQ community, women, etc.) As part of his Sunday sermon after the tragedy, Pastor Wesley preached this, in part, to his congregation:
“CK did not deserve to be assassinated. But I'm overwhelmed. Seeing the flags of the United States of America and Half Staff calling this nation to honor and venerate a man who was an unapologetic racist and spending all of his life sewing seeds of division and hate into this land.
“And hearing people with selective rage who are mad about CK but didn't give a damn about Melissa Hortman and her husband when they were shot down in their home, tell me I ought to have compassion of the death of a man who had no respect for my own life!
“I am sorry, but there is nowhere in Bible where we are taught to honor evil. And how you die does not redeem how you lived. You do not become a hero in your death, when you were a weapon of the enemy in your life.
“I can abhor the violence that took your life. But I don't have to celebrate how you chose to live.
“I. Am. Overwhelmed.”
-Pastor Howard-John Wesley of the Alfred Street Baptist Church
Video originally posted by Etan Thomas. Watch the video here.
Did anyone Ignore the Order?
Yes. The state of New York ignored the order, as well New Jersey, as reported in the New York Post. The New York Post reported: “State officials said New York plans to direct flags to be lowered on the day of Kirk’s funeral, consistent with past practice for other high-profile deaths like Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Corey Comperatore, the Pennsylvania firefighter slain in last year’s Trump rally.”
An official in Iowa refused to follow his governor’s order. As reported in The Guardian, Jon Green, the chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors “I condemn Kirk’s killing, regardless of who pulled the trigger or why,” Green, who is a Democrat, wrote. “But I will not grant Johnson County honors to a man who made it his life’s mission to denigrate so many of the constituents I have sworn an oath to protect – and who did so much to harm not only the marginalized – but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic.” Jon told the Gazette that Iowa did not lower the flag for Melissa Hortman.
Rolling Stone reported that the NFL left the decision to honor up to the teams. Five NFL teams did not have a moment of silence, which included The Vikings, Steelers, Colts, Bengals, Lions, and Ravens. “The Steelers did hold their American flags at half-staff,” Rolling Stone reported, “observing a Trump order about flags on public grounds (which some state and local officials meanwhile ignored). On Monday night, the Houston Texans marked a moment of silence for victims of violence without naming Kirk by name, while the Las Vegas Raiders made no reference, veiled or otherwise, to the assassination.”
Was There A School Shooting At The Time Of CK’s Shooting?
Yes. As reported in The Guardian: “Exactly one minute later, at 12.24pm, about 450 miles (725km) to the east in Colorado, a 911 call came in to first responders in the mountain town of Evergreen. A 16-year-old student had opened fire with a revolver on high school grounds, critically injuring two fellow students before turning the handgun on himself.”
Yet there was no federal order for the flags to be lowered to half-staff for the children. Nor is it regular practice to lower the flags at schools across the country when other students, faculty of staff are murdered in mass school shootings, the defense for which, is practiced regularly at schools.
While the murder of CK happened on a school campus, and another school shooting happened 450 miles away, there has been no debate, proposed new legislation, or call for reduction of accessibility to guns in the United States.
MidHudson News first reported that a Westchester County School Resource Officer (SRO), Tanisha Blanche, was reassigned, as instigated by Somers Superintendent of Schools Adam Bronstein after she allegedly made more than one post on Facebook about the shooting of CK. Police1 reported: “The officer allegedly made several posts, including: ‘Why yall don’t have that same energy for the school shooting that took place yesterday, but yall crying over the man that was ok with gun violence.’” Her second comment can be read at MidHudson News.
Police1 reported that Superintendent Bronstein “said the posts glorified violence and were unacceptable for someone responsible for student safety. He contacted the Westchester County SRO unit, which reassigned the officer.”
Frequently Quoted Quotes By Charlie Kirk:
Hindustan Times gathered quotes that have been referred to after his murder. The Guardian also rounded up quotes.
At a Turning Point USA event, Kirk said, “We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty... But I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment.”
CK dismissed empathy on his podcast. “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.”
This quote illustrates how he characterizes a group of people: “They [Black people] were actually better in the 1940s. It was bad. It was evil. But what happened? Something changed. They committed less crimes… Black America is worse than it has been in the last 80 years.”
On rape and child pregnancy, CK said that this is how he would advise his daughter, should it happen to her: “The answer is yes. The baby would be delivered.”
At a TPUSA event, he compared trans identity to blackface. “A man who calls himself trans is wearing ‘woman face,’ no different than I would wear Black face trying to be a Black person. It’s assuming an identity that isn’t yours.”
On his radio show, he claimed Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson were “affirmative action picks.” He said: “Black women do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
After Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s announced engagement, he suggested that Taylor be submissive: “Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.”
Charlie and his changing position on Israel
In the weeks before his life ended, CK was questioning his position on Israel regarding the ethnic cleansing it is conducting in Palestine. CK had been a solid supporter of Israel and its genocide. But in the past few weeks, had been vocalizing questions and frustration. Newsweek wrote about it here. Yahoo News reported that Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens acknowledge and agree with Charlie’s changing discourse about Israel as he became more critical of Israel’s killing.
Charlie and Megyn discuss Israel here on YouTube, where Charlie vocalizes his frustrations with his freedom to speak out critically about Israel. Megyn then agrees and identifies with his experience.
