By The Editorial Board
Sept. 11, 2025, marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11, and it seems the country has become embedded in an immeasurable sense of grief and tragedy again. It’s difficult to digest the U.S. news as announcements from one shooting that was abruptly interrupted by another shooting flood your screen. In addition to the shocking gun violence that took place, a Ukrainian woman was stabbed to death on a train Monday.
Political affiliation aside, this is immeasurably horrific.
It’s in times like these that make us question humanity in its entirety, and the truth is these are all sentences with question marks that will never be replaced by periods. There is no explanation or justification, and throughout the unbreakable surge of pain, the only thing we have left is each other.
As people continue moving further into division, society replaces empathy with emptiness. Political ideology has clouded our vision, and regardless of the motive behind Charlie Kirk’s murder, no reason will bring understanding.
Kirk was a person with a wife and kids. That is all the reason we need to have empathy for him. Instead, we have become entangled in a maze of political affiliations and moral complexities, bringing us to a point of no return.
Rather than discussion and open thought, we, as a country, have turned to violence. This extends across conservatives, moderates and liberals, because violence doesn’t have a victor.
As tragedy continues to circulate throughout the country, videos of Kirk’s assassination are circling the internet as if this is a normal thing to witness; however, media desensitization has led us to this point, and the impacts are jarring. Between video games, social media and films, the nation is flooded with extremely graphic images on a daily basis.
According to a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, “A large body of evidence reveals that violent media can increase aggression. Indeed, the effects of screen violence on increased aggressive behavior have been reviewed and affirmed by numerous major scientific organizations.”
Given these facts, it is little surprise that we have fallen through such cracks in our country. The largest problems have often been left to the least knowledgeable voices, and consequently, we have landed in a nearly irredeemable state of apathy.
In 2024, PBS ran a poll on the matter of violence as a means of course correction. The findings read, “one in five U.S. adults believes Americans may have to resort to violence to get their own country back on track.”
The staggering statistic presents a significant opportunity for people from all backgrounds to bridge the ever-widening gap in our country and find the one thing that will save us at this point.
If you take nothing else away from this editorial, hear this: the only thing that comes into fruition from the medium of violence is a wounded side and a less wounded side. No one comes out on top. There is no victory in destruction — only pain. And pain is the only thing that will continue in this country until we return to empathy.
Tomorrow is not promised, and the only option we have at this point is unity.
