The Oldest Crime
⚰️ Murder is evil.
Always has been. Always will be. It is a crime against another human being—an act so heinous it strips the perpetrator of their humanity.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk was horrendous. The stabbing of the Ukrainian girl was horrific. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, Gandhi, Medgar Evers, even Jesus—the list of the murdered is also the roll call of history. Murder does not improve the world. It scars it.
The Media’s Trick
📰 But here’s my problem: in our current climate, murder is not just murder. It is raw material. It is alchemy for the media, which melts tragedy into polarization.
The Kirk shooting becomes an instant headline about “radical left violence,” though the shooter was an isolated man, turned in by his own family. The Ukrainian girl’s stabbing becomes a broad racial script: “Black criminal kills white refugee,” though the man was clearly insane and freed by a broken legal system.
Both stories collapse into blunt instruments. Both are flattened into fuel for outrage. And we—viewers, readers, citizens—are left in a haze of anger without nuance.
What Polarization Really Means
🧲 The word “polarization” itself tells the tale. From the Latin polus (pole) plus “–ization” (the act of making): it means splitting into opposite ends.
In physics, polarization aligns light waves or magnetic fields. In society, it aligns us into warring camps, pulling harder and harder toward extremes.
From Trump assassination attempts in 2024 to the 2025 killings of Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk, political violence is no longer just reported—it is polarized, magnified, and sold back to us in sharper and sharper contrast.
Can We Still Disagree Without Blood?
🤝 I’ve never seen it like this. And maybe you haven’t either. Friends lost over politics. Families fractured over Facebook. Every disagreement is painted in apocalyptic tones.
But what happened to agreeing to disagree? To shaking hands and moving on? Why would you want to hurt anybody?
Yes, there are exceptions. Hitler, Stalin, and their murderous kin deserved more than a spanking. Had the assassination attempt on Hitler succeeded, millions of lives might have been spared. But Netanyahu and Putin? I’d argue they need scolding, not snipers.
The Dangerous Symmetry
♻️ Polarization fuels violence. Violence fuels polarization. And the wheel keeps spinning.
Anyone who truly believes people with different beliefs should be punished is already dangerous. The rest of us must resist being swept into their poles.
Because murder is not politics. Murder is murder. And if we forget that, we risk becoming what we fear.
👉 Citizens Twain: What do you think—are we beyond the point of “agree to disagree”? Or is there still a way back from the poles?
Kimberly
This is one of your best texts. We are on a dangerous path that could easily lead to more violence. Where are the voices of calm and restraint. I remember RFK, the real one,speaking after Martin Luther King’s assassination calling for calm and recalling that his brother has been killed and for the country to come together at a tragic moment.
Keep up your perceptive writing. You have a powerful voice.