This week has been tough. Mostly because the world is burning, and it’s because we can’t get past labels and beliefs enough to see that violence is despicable in all forms. P.S. if you didn’t read the whole thing, don’t comment or hate on it. Your opinion isn’t informed. It’ll only cost you 15 minutes.
Disclaimer
This is not a debate, and it is not an expression of hate or partisan politics. What follows is a record of facts, history, and tragedy, shared with the hope of a future where we can talk without yelling that everyone else is wrong for what they believe. We must learn to respect one another’s First Amendment rights and our God-given/unalienable freedom to believe as we choose, even when we disagree.
The way people talked about, dealt with, or presented themselves in the aftermath of these events is not in question or up for debate. People tend to suck, they tend to gossip, and they tend to bend facts to fit their truth. This is not that.
We’ve been bent on labels and the intensity of our beliefs since the beginning of time. All of the things mentioned below were wrong. They were divisive. They were dehumanizing. The difference is this: no one had Facebook in the 1800s. And that’s where things get wild.
Second Disclaimer
I am a forty-year-old, white, Christian, heterosexual male with a blended family. I am not sinless. You are welcome in my home whether you drink; cuss; are LGBTQ+; are Black, Latinx, Asian, or any other race Earthly or from another planet; are Christian, Muslim (Islam), Buddhist, or Catholic vegan, vegetarian, or carnivore; [insert label]; [insert label]; etc. I don’t care. My family and I love you as a human, and we’re not the thing that’s going to attack you. I’ve probably said things you could weaponize against me. If I have, I’m sorry.
We may not agree. We may not celebrate choices. But we don’t hate. And that’s the issue with social media and all other media–we’ve created a massive engine for uneducated hatred and bigotry that is unfortunately and inevitably growing and unstoppable. It’s only “good” if it riles the emotions and the rhetoric.
The rub
After I learned about the assassination of Charlie Kirk and scrolled through the storm of rhetoric on my social media feeds, I felt sick. The way people rushed to justify, mock, or dismiss a man’s death based purely on his politics broke something in me. However, I felt sensitive to the way our country is feeling on both sides.
It wasn’t just about Kirk. It was about the larger truth that in America today, labels and beliefs seem to matter more than human life. We’ve had so much death, pain, and division that I can’t see partisanship or politics as the point anymore. What matters is that people keep dying, and we keep hardening our hearts instead of softening them. We keep forming the right, wrong and indifference of opinion.
I read the comments about the Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska, who was murdered earlier in the week. I read the comments about Melissa Hortman. I read all the hate spewed around. I saw zero offers of a solution apart from a friend, Jonathan Halley, who said we should all just chill. He is right.
We all need to realize that we’re spraying water at a wasp’s nest, and they’re just getting pissed.
That moment pushed me to compile this long reflection on the tragedies in our history, not just to remember the events themselves, but to expose the pattern: how quickly we dehumanize one another when labels take the place of compassion.
In reality …
America has always been a paradox. We were founded on ideals of liberty, equality, and justice, yet birthed in the violence of conquest and exclusion. From our earliest days, we used labels and beliefs to sort ourselves. Rich and poor, slave and free, conservative and liberal, right and left, native and immigrant, Christian and non-believer, straight and gay, etc.
The danger isn’t in naming differences or holding beliefs. The danger comes when those labels and beliefs are weaponized. Too often, we rush to define victims and perpetrators by category before we mourn their humanity. We debate someone’s character based on their beliefs, whether right or wrong.
And I have news for you – spewing what you believe to those who disagree with you and not trying to understand their side of the matter is wrong. You don’t have to like their choices or words, but you do owe humans the right to say how they feel in conversation with you. You don’t live in their body. If you disagree, calmly do so with facts and information, not opinions.
To be fair – my dad never likes my earrings. That was his opinion. He never ripped them out or spit hate at me. He loved me. And he taught me to love others whether I liked their lifestyle or not.
As a Christian, my duty is to pray, educate, and love. It’s not to force my beliefs on someone. I can’t control their future. Neither can you.
Note: Below is a small selection of historical events. This is not all-encompassing or biased. It’s simply what I’m most familiar with.
The 1800s: A Nation Divided
Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831)
Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, led a revolt in Virginia that killed more than 50 whites. The retaliation was brutal: white militias and mobs murdered more than 100 Black men, women, and children, most uninvolved. Slave and free weren’t just categories; they were beliefs about who had the right to live free and who could be owned. Labels and beliefs together determined life and death.
Bleeding Kansas (1850s)
The Kansas Territory became a proving ground for America’s soul: would it be free or slave? John Brown’s 1856 Pottawatomie massacre, where five pro-slavery settlers were hacked to death, ignited tit-for-tat killings. Labels like abolitionist and pro-slavery justified neighbors slaughtering neighbors, and beliefs about morality, religion, and destiny only hardened those divisions.
Reconstruction Massacres (1860s–70s)
After the Civil War, Black freedom sparked a wave of white terror. In Memphis (1866), dozens of freedmen were murdered by mobs and police. In New Orleans (1866), Black delegates were gunned down at a constitutional convention. At Colfax (1873), white supremacists killed more than 100 Black men in Louisiana. Labels of white vs. Black, Unionist vs. Confederate mattered, but beliefs in white supremacy and Black inferiority provided the justification for slaughter.
The 1900s: Assassinations and Civil Rights Bloodshed
Presidential Assassinations
William McKinley (1901) was killed by an anarchist who said, ‘I killed the president because he was the enemy of the good people.’ John F. Kennedy (1963) was shot in Dallas, his death feeding Cold War paranoia and conspiracy. These weren’t just attacks on men; they were attacks on what those men symbolized. President was itself a label, but the beliefs about power, inequality, and oppression were what turned that label into a target.
The Civil Rights Era
The 1960s brought murders of voices demanding equality. Medgar Evers (1963) was shot in his driveway. Malcolm X (1965) was assassinated mid-speech. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) was killed in Memphis while supporting sanitation workers. Robert F. Kennedy (1968) was assassinated during his presidential campaign. Each became a martyr not only for their cause but also for the danger of labels and beliefs. To segregationists, King was a ‘radical agitator.’ To civil rights activists, he was a prophet. Beliefs about race and justice determined whether he was saint or sinner.
The 2000s: Terror, Mass Shootings, and Polarization
9/11 (2001)
Nearly 3,000 lives lost in a single morning. Suddenly, Muslim became synonymous with terrorist in American discourse. Millions of innocent people bore the label extremists had weaponized, and beliefs about Islam and the West hardened into justification for war and suspicion.
School and Public Shootings
Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Sandy Hook (2012), Parkland (2018), and Uvalde (2022) saw children and teachers gunned down. The 2017 Las Vegas massacre left 60 dead and 850 injured at a music festival. The pattern after each one? The labels and the beliefs. Gun rights vs. gun control. Conservative vs. liberal. Belief in the Second Amendment vs. belief in regulation. The dead became statistics in ideological trench warfare.
Hate Crimes
Charleston Church (2015) saw nine African American worshippers murdered. The Pittsburgh Synagogue (2018) left eleven Jews dead on Sabbath. The Pulse Nightclub (2016) cut short 49 LGBTQ+ lives. In every case, ideology transformed into violence. Race, religion, and sexual orientation were labels, but belief that one group was ‘invading,’ ‘degenerate,’ or ‘evil’ made the violence possible.
The 2020s: When Politics Turned to Assassination
George Floyd (2020)
His killing by police became a spark for global protest. Yet immediately, his name was weaponized: to the left, a call for justice; to the right, a symbol of ‘law and order’ breaking down. Floyd became both a label and a belief. Proof of systemic racism to some, evidence of cultural decay to others.
Minnesota Lawmakers Assassinated (2025)
State House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home; another legislator and spouse were shot. They were allegedly targeted as Democrats. Beliefs about abortion and liberal governance allegedly fueled the attack.
Denver Area High School Shooting (September 2025)
In September, at least two students were shot at a high school in the Denver area. The incident reminds us how violence has invaded spaces once considered safe for learning and growth. As always, the aftermath included debates over school security, mental health, and ideology. Some used this tragedy to argue for stronger conservative policies on school safety; others emphasized systemic prevention and support for at-risk youth. What matters most is not which side uses this for their narrative, but remembering that young lives were changed forever, again, by violence driven by beliefs and neglect more than by labels.
Ukrainian Refugee Murdered (2025)
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had fled the war in Kyiv, was brutally stabbed to death on a light rail train in Charlotte. She had already survived bombings and displacement, only to be murdered in what police described as a random, senseless act. The tragedy quickly became fodder for debate: some framed it as evidence of the failures of “liberal cities,” while others saw it as yet another reminder of America’s struggle with violence and mental health.
What was lost in the noise was Iryna herself, a young woman who had sought safety and a chance at life in a country that promises both, only to be cut down by hatred or chaos. Labels like “immigrant” and “refugee,” and beliefs about who belongs, once again overshadowed the basic fact that a human being’s life was stolen.
Charlie Kirk Assassination (2025)
A conservative activist gunned down at a Utah university. Kirk wasn’t just a label (conservative) he embodied beliefs about American youth, free speech, and Christianity. Those beliefs made him a target.
Ukrainian Refugee Murdered (2025): Iryna Zarutska fled bombs in Kyiv only to be stabbed on a train in Charlotte. The attack may not have been politically motivated, but it was framed in debates about labels (immigrant, refugee) and beliefs (liberal city policies vs. national security).
Annunciation Catholic School Shooting (2025): Children killed in a Minneapolis church-school. Faith itself became a dividing line. Labels of Catholic vs. secular, belief in God vs. disbelief shaping how the aftermath was argued.
And, for those who follow Christ, it’s not like we’ve avoided it. It’s been this way since the Bible.
Cain and Abel: The first murder in Scripture was fueled by envy and identity. Cain labeled Abel ‘favored’ and believed God had rejected him. Label and belief combined into justification for murder.
Tower of Babel: Division came not from God’s cruelty but from humanity’s inability to cooperate beyond labels and beliefs.
Jew and Gentile: Paul insisted in Galatians 3:28, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one.’ Yet Christians spent centuries killing each other over the very beliefs he warned against.
The Good Samaritan: A man helped by his cultural enemy, a story told precisely because labels and beliefs blind us to compassion.
How do we break the cycle?
From 1800 to 2025, America has written its history in blood spilled over labels and beliefs. Each tragedy, each funeral, is followed by the same argument: which side is to blame?
But what if we stopped?
What if we thought and grieved and mourned before we debated?
What if we saw the child, the parent, the refugee, the legislator, before we saw the party affiliation, the color, the creed, or the belief system?
What if, for once, we loved past the labels and the beliefs?
What if, before going to Facebook, we went to each other?
America is bleeding because Americans are divisive and standing on division. History will not forgive us if we refuse to learn that truth. Quit bickering on social if you can, and figure out how to work together.
I believe we can, and it won’t be one side or the other who leads. It’ll be us.
References
1800s
- Nat Turner’s Rebellion – PBS: Africans in America
- Bleeding Kansas & John Brown – History.com
- Memphis Massacre – National Park Service
- New Orleans Massacre – Library of Congress
- Colfax Massacre – Smithsonian Magazine
1900s
- Assassination of President McKinley – Library of Congress
- JFK Assassination – JFK Library
- Medgar Evers – Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
- Malcolm X – Columbia University Malcolm X Project
- Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination – King Institute, Stanford
- Robert F. Kennedy – History.com
2000s
- 9/11 Attacks – 9/11 Commission Report
- U.S. Mass Shootings Data – Everytown Research
- Las Vegas Shooting – FBI
- Charleston Church Shooting – NPR
- Pittsburgh Synagogue – New York Times
- Pulse Nightclub – Orlando Sentinel
2020s
- George Floyd – Brookings
- Minnesota Legislators Assassinated – ABC News
- Charlie Kirk Assassination – AP News
- Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska – ABC7
- Annunciation Catholic School Shooting – Wikipedia
- Ukrainian Refugee Murdered (Iryna Zarutska, 2025) – People
- Denver Area High School Shooting (September 2025) – AP News
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