I have not written at all about Charlie Kirk in the wake of his disgusting murder, so allow me a bit of throat clearing. When I learned of his murder, my reaction was to be both depressed and a bit sick to my stomach. I’m under no illusions about who Kirk was, what he stood for, and my deep opposition to the positions for which he advocated. I’m equally not in any way fooled by the posthumous lionizing campaign that has been conducted to try to rewrite what he did in life, nor the disingenuous nature of his so-called “debate” setups at colleges and elsewhere.

With all of that being said, what happened to Kirk was simple: he was savagely murdered in front of an audience by a deranged assassin for his speech. And that is every bit as antithetical to the American experience as even the worst of what Kirk may have said in life. I was depressed and sick over his killing, in part because what happened to him was obviously not right, and in part because I absolutely knew what would come in the aftermath. His death would be viciously used by others to advance agendas that have little or nothing to do with Kirk’s life or death.

And that brings us to Oklahoma. Usually, when I’m talking about Oklahoma, it’s about the christo-fascist running the state school system, Ryan Walters. And we’ll get to him in part 2 of these posts, because he just resigned his post in a very funny way. In this post, however, we’ll talk about Republican members of the Oklahoma legislature introducing a bill that would require every public university in the state to create a statue of Kirk, emblazoned with a sign referring to him as a “civil rights leader,” within an area on campus dedicated to his memory.

The Oklahoma bill, sponsored by state senators Shane Jett and Dana Prieto, specifies that the memorial site must be in “a prominent area” on the main campus of every institution of higher education in the state system, and must include “a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him” or one of Kirk and his wife holding their children. Designs for the statue must be approved by the legislature.

Each plaza must also include “permanent signage commemorating Charlie Kirk’s courage and faith and explaining the significance of Charlie Kirk as a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate”.

As the article goes on to note, the requirement to refer to Kirk as a “civil rights leader” is especially profane, given his professed disdain for leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. Failure to abide by this legislation, if passed, would result in monthly fines upon the university equal to 1% of the school’s budget.

I’d love to say that I doubt this bill will pass… but I can’t. Oklahoma is an extremely red state and I can absolutely see this getting through their legislature and being signed by its governor. But if that happens, the lawsuits will come fast and furious. This is a purely partisan bill created by purely partisan state politicians that will compel the speech of universities, and force the witnessing of that compelled speech by the student and faculty bodies. It’s fucking bullshit and Charlie Kirk, if taken at his word, would have opposed the hell out of this. I’m unaware of any other mandated-statues for other civil rights leaders at Oklahoma schools and if Charlie Kirk is the first, well, that makes very little sense.

And just so we know who we’re dealing with here:

One of the lawmakers, Jett, praised Kirk in explicitly religious terms, calling him “a faithful servant of Christ”. Last year, Jett criticized a bipartisan bill to restrict corporal punishment against students with disabilities by citing the Old Testament proverb, “Whoever spares the rod hates their child”, during a debate in the state house.

Pure christo-fascism on display.

I very much hope that this bill doesn’t pass. Not due to any feelings I might have about Kirk’s actions during his life, mind you, but because this sort of performative authoritarian bullshit is just that.

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