Yesterday, the Center for Truth and Love and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) held a memorial on UWF’s campus for Charlie Kirk, entitled “Unsilenced: The Legacy Continues,” which showed both student interest and disinterest in political messaging on campus.
Charlie Kirk, political podcast host and founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated Sept. 10, on the first stop of his “Prove Me Wrong” tour at the Utah Valley University campus.
The event was organized by Ben Shetler, President of The Center for Truth and Love, and hosted by Silas Hudson, chapter leader of YAF. The Center for Truth and Love is a Christian organization that, according to their website, aims to spread the word and educate on God and Christian teachings. YAF is a student organization dedicated to spreading conservative values on college campuses.
The crowd, a mixture of students and community members, was around 400, according to the Pensacola News Journal. Exact numbers of each group are unknown, but many speakers were not identified as students..
Although Kirk’s assassination has renewed national interest in his content, multiple students in the commons and in the library said they were uninterested in the event or in Kirk himself. Some students also said that while they did not agree with Kirk, he did not deserve to die.
One student, Stone Dinwiddie, said he was neutral towards the event, but was attending in case the open mic portion brought any interesting debates.
“I just came here for the beef,” Dinwiddie said. “I love the beef.”
In an interview held after the event, Hudson responded to these observations, acknowledging that creating interest is one of their main goals and acknowledging those who disagreed with Kirk.
“So, since Charlie Kirk focused on college campuses, we want to do the same thing. One of our main concerns is sort of a lack on college campuses. We did our share of recruiting,” Hudson said. “When we talk about how everyone says, well, he didn’t deserve to die, they’re pointing to the fact that you don’t deserve to die merely for opening your mind. And that’s exactly the idea that we want to come in with this.”
