Honoring Kirk at TAMUK
Supporters of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk gathered at Texas A&M University-Kingsville(TAMUK), where they stood in silence, shared prayers and listened as attendees reflected on Kirk’s life.
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, a vigil for Kirk drew in a small group of students and community members on campus. Kirk was assassinated at the age of 31 on Sept. 10. Political violence is on the rise in America, from the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, to the murder of Minnesota House Representative Melissa Hortman, and now the assassination of Kirk.
As more of Kirk’s supporters arrived, everyone gathered in prayer to start off the night.
The first prayer was more focused on bringing everybody together, supporter or not, and expressed concern for Kirk’s family. The second was the Lord’s Prayer that was recited by the group.
Once prayer had concluded attendees started to talk and share their thoughts about Kirk and his message.
“He was a man of faith who didn’t pick sides,” Mauro Castro said.
The community of Kingsville came together not just to mourn someone who had the same political views but to honor a man they saw as someone who spoke openly about his beliefs and ideals.
When asked why the event was important to him, organizer Andrew Treme said, “It’s important for me because after seeing what happened to Charlie Kirk I just wanted to… I guess, be bold in my faith in Jesus Christ and just come out here and gather with the community to mourn, talk about Jesus and people’s faith in general.”
Attendees said they admired Kirk.
“I thought he was a great person. I think he was less of a political, like, campaign and more of just a religious campaign, like, he spoke more about religion than anybody I know. He could recite any verse from the Bible on command. He always had a religious response for the politics that he was backing up, and I just thought that that was really cool. And he was definitely somebody that I looked up to,” Student and Javelina cheerleader Kennedy Ward said.
As the night ended, attendees stopped to speak with Treme about bringing the community together. Attendees also laid out their ideas for another and bigger ceremony. A community was brought together because of political violence, left with prayer, love and hope for the future.
Managing Editor Matthew Roberts contributed to this report.