Charlie Kirk Showed His Quality When Few Others Would

In Memoriam

Hey, everyone. In light of the American left viciously murdering Charlie Kirk, who recently became a new dad, it felt inappropriate to send out the podcast. I’ll send that out tomorrow. However, I do have a personal story about Charlie that I wanted to share, as it shows what a great man he was. I hope you don’t find that inappropriate, and let us all say a prayer for his departed soul.

Given the unspeakably evil murder of Charlie Kirk, I wanted to share the one interaction I had with Mr. Kirk, back in better days.

That was in November of 2019, when I was still in college at Washington and Lee University. Though this was in the pre-George Floyd days, tensions were still high on campus over the name of the school, as the spiteful Bolshevik mutants were furious that they went to a school named after the two greatest Americans.

At the time, I was in the leadership of an organization called the W&L Spectator, a conservative campus journal. As could be expected, we were pro-Lee and so hated by said spiteful mutants.

We also had the opportunity to host Mr. Kirk, who agreed to give a speech in the school’s historic Lee Chapel (since renamed to “University Chapel” by the execrable cowards on the school’s board). As such, he’d be speaking in front of General Lee’s mausoleum.

A picture of the mausoleum from better days

Before his speech, which the leftists were already protesting, a few other students and I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Kirk for half an hour or so. He was a kind, pleasant man. Immensely gracious and humble, easy to talk to, and just all around fantastic. He also said he could focus on General Robert E Lee, if we thought that would be important. We said it was, and I shared that I grew up thinking that Lee was one of the greatest Americans, a man of unblemished personal honor. Mr. Kirk said he had been taught the same, and it was a belief he held deeply.

He then walked in the chapel, got up on stage, and courageously gave a speech that centered on General Lee. For about an hour, Mr. Kirk discussed the general’s honor, his status as an incontestibly great American, and why we should remain committed not only to honoring Lee’s legacy, but striving to be men of honor like him. It was a great speech.

It was also immensely brave. Few people at the time, even before Floyd, had the personal courage to defend General Lee in public. Particularly mainstream figures. They’d dither and waffle, backing down like the cowards they were to the left on that immensely important issue. Those pond scum types would have let American history be destroyed in the name of just avoiding one more fight.

Not Charlie. He did what all men should, and set an example we must emulate. He showed his quality, as my friend Chivalry Guild puts it. “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall,” as the saying goes. He had the courage that very few others had to actually do that, to speak out and defend General Lee, to call out the War on the South and on our heritage. I can’t emphasize that bravery enough. Few others had the courage to speak as he did about General Lee and our history, and next to none who did were major, mainstream figures. But Charlie did, and he showed his quality as he did it.

For those interested in what exactly he said, I can’t find a video of it. However, I did find this passage that I wrote for the Spectator at the time, describing in brief his comments. I wish I had recorded them more thoroughly, but here is what I said:

In his recent speech on campus, Mr. Charlie Kirk discussed what he described as the “War on the South” that is happening across America. Statues of southern icons have been torn down or vandalized by mobs and the mobs have gone unpunished. Schools have erased any connection they might have with Lee or other former Confederate generals. History books mainly teach the bad aspects of Lee . . .

In any case, that showing of his bravery—for it was dangerous to one’s career to air such thoughts at the time—along with his personal honor and refusal to back down, was immensely moving. It was also something that stiffened all of our spines, leading to a revival in pro-Lee sentiment and the courage to speak it. That probably helped defeat the name change attempt that soon engulfed the school, and kept Lee’s legacy alive in a major way. Charlie was integral to that immense victory.

Much less importantly, it’s also much of the reason why you’re reading this Substack at all. As someone in the leadership of both the Spectator and the College Republicans—the two groups that hosted Mr. Kirk—I got to give the introductory speech for him, and hold the microphone for the various dysgenic leftists who wanted to question him. He posted a video of me sneering at one of them as he demolished her, and that helped me gin up the courage to start sharing my own thoughts online. Not that that matters much, in the context of this, but I am eternally grateful for that moment.

All I could find is a screengrab of that moment

So, thank you, Mr. Kirk. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for speaking out when few others would. Thank you for inspiring us all, and your service to what remains of the American nation. Like General Lee, whom you so valiantly defended, your memory will live on and is one for which we will fight. Praying for you, your wife, and your soul.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his brothers.”

Respectfully yours,

Will Tanner

Image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America - Charlie Kirk & Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134984195