The disturbing shooting death of Charlie Kirk Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University brought to mind the time we met eight years ago in Vero Beach.
Fresh off an appearance on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Show, Kirk, an Illinois native, then 23, spoke and raised money at Quail Valley River and John’s Island clubs April 12, 2017. It was one of several trips Kirk, who decided to forgo college to start Turning Point USA in 2012, made to the Treasure Coast.
Karl Zimmermann, Indian River County’s former tax collector, had told me Kirk was coming to town, was an impressive, up-and-coming leader, and suggested I try to attend. Instead, I arranged with the late builder Toby Hill, then in charge of the local Tea Party, to meet Kirk — who I’d been told was wary of journalists ― after his lunch speech at Quail Valley.
Billed as a polarizing figure, Kirk was anything but at Quail Valley.
We chatted for 20 or 30 minutes. As part of the conversation, he offered what I thought was some good — objective ― advice for teenagers on what to read in high school. Those words live on in video.
That and some of the other things he said that day were serendipitously connected to political and religious conversations going on about that time among high school students at Vero Beach High and St. Edward’s schools.
Looking back at that column — and the ability we, and those high schoolers had, to civilly discuss difficult issues — makes me yearn for those days again.
Charlie Kirk, local teens offered vision of civil discourse
Below is that column. I hope you find it useful and makes it easier for you to have civil conversations with people you might disagree with.
The headline: “Open-minded teens good sign for future.”
It wasn’t the kind of conversation you’d expect in a car with 16-year-olds on the way back from a soccer game.
“Mr. Reisman,” Jonathan “Jonny” Womack asked me. “What are some of your favorite books?”
My answer, which I tried to tailor for a high-school student, began what became the first of several unrelated experiences giving me faith our next generation of political leaders would be more open-minded, thoughtful and collaborative than today’s.
After Jonny, a Vero Beach High School junior I’ve known since he was about 5, asked me the question, I pondered. I’ve got a lot of favorite books on everything from business leadership (“Good to Great,” by Jim Collins) to baseball nonfiction (“Ball Four” by Jim Bouton). I played it safe with Jonny, offering favorites by Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
I asked for his. The response was thought-provoking: among them, “Capitalism and Freedom” and “Free to Choose” by Milton Friedman, the most influential free-market economist of the 20th century. We then had an apolitical discussion about economic theory. Jonny told me he wanted to read other economics books with varying viewpoints.
It’s not every day you have a college-level discussion about economic theory with a 16-year-old. And it’s not every day a teenager tells you he can’t wait to go to a debate the next night at his high school.
Jonny was looking forward to seeing students Ben Tardif and Zach Wright debate John LaLime and Hannah Nuttall on such issues as the environment, minimum wage, income taxes and health care. The debate was a fundraiser for the Indian River County Academic Games Club and the VBHS Junior Statesman of America. But it was more, student organizer Gavin D’Elia said in an email.
“Where the common saying is, ‘Don’t talk politics,’ we welcome the discussion,” D’Elia said, noting organizers wanted to “promote a healthy debate of politics among our student body and the community.”
Such discussion is essential to solve problems. All too often people agree there’s a problem, but disagree on how to solve it. When one side does not communicate with the other, there’s often a lack of trust. That leads to a lack of dialogue, and problems are unresolved.
Betsy DeVos nearly disinvited
Vero Beach High School is not the only place bringing together people with different views. St. Edward’s School’s Breaking Barriers Club recently hosted an event, “Finding Common Ground: An Interfaith Conversation,” which brought together leaders of various faiths.
Listening to diverse messages is critical for understanding. Colleges, rightly or wrongly, get rapped for allowing liberal voices to dominate. Last week, Bethune-Cookman University alumni and a Florida teachers union petitioned the university to disinvite commencement speaker Betsy DeVos, U.S. education secretary.
The part-time Indian River County resident might be controversial, but like her or not, she is the nation’s highest-ranking government education official. We should listen to what she says, then react the way we want. Refusing to listen serves no one.
Calling out professors who incite anti-Trump violence
A lack of political balance on campus is one reason Illinois native Charlie Kirk, 23, opted to forgo college and start Turning Point USA five years ago. The conservative nonprofit, which says it is on more than 1,000 college and high school campuses, hopes to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”
Last month, Kirk visited Quail Valley and John’s Island clubs the day of the VBHS debate. He talked about his organization’s controversial Professor Watchlist.
“We’ve been disappointed by some of the comments and the isolation that many young conservatives feel in the classroom,” Kirk said. “This project singles out professors that go far well and beyond just being liberal, but either say such outlandish things, such as inciting violence against (Donald) Trump, or hold views that marginalize conservatives in the classroom.
“I think it’s fostered a very healthy debate,” he said. “It’s not Professor Hit List or Professor Black List … it’s about awareness.”
Kirk said he has no plans to run for office. His goal over the next 20 years is to do something bipartisan he thinks most millennials agree with: reform the U.S. political system.
“Politicians most of the time serve their own interests, not the interests of their constituents,” he told me, suggesting that representatives of both political parties are too influenced by lobbyists and a flawed system of funding political campaigns. “I think they’re all talk, no action, both parties a lot of the time.”
He thinks Trump tapped into something insider Hillary Clinton couldn’t: disgust with the system, which he said needs term limits and transparency.
Such issues interest millennials almost as much as those debated in Congress. The good news is young people, even in our community, are getting interested and engaged in economics and politics. And many of them are willing to discuss it civilly with people who disagree.
That bodes well for our nation’s future.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach Charlie Kirk visit in 2017 offers lessons we should heed today | Opinion
Reporting by Laurence Reisman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
