How to Have Hope When Political Violence Is Real

Political violence is undoubtedly a reality in this country, and is more obvious every day. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is just one small example, and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and efforts to celebrate his death should also be condemned in the strongest possible terms. 

(Whether individuals who spoke out against him like Jimmy Kimmel should be silenced by their employers is a question that is an open question legally depending on the type of employer, given the speech in many cases has nothing to do with an individual's duties on the job, and thus is  the type of speech that an employer arguably should not care about under well respected First Amendment caselaw governing employer ability's to curb employee speech out of the workplace that turns on the type of the speech and whether it is relevant to an employees duties on the job, as opposed to their personal viewpoints, and may be protected under the Supreme Court's decision in Pickering and its progeny such as Garcetti.) 

However, that's not the point of this post. The post is not about, say, the legality of Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air (likely due to advertiser pressure on his network, or efforts by the Trump Administration to silence him behind the scenes). Rather this post is about the necessity of speaking out and spreading a message of hope, even while under threat.

An incredible example of just such a leader is New York mayorial candidate Zohran Mamdani, who received a threat on September 11 based his Muslim heritage. Mamdani is radical and represents a new vision of hope for the Democratic Party, yet the Democrats have been slow to accept him. Mandami at least is responsive to certain persons within the Democratic Party who feel that the party does not represent them because of its views on the Palestinian protests, or doesn't understand the increased price of groceries, and how these might have really been a legitimate complaint that resulted in Harris' loss not because she didn't support decreased prices at the grocery store, but rather because Harris did not connect to many blue collar democrats who felt crushed financially, and those individuals chose to vote for Trump or chose to stay home on Election Day because they felt abandoned by the Democratic Party.

Mamdani represents a new kind of voice within the Democratic Party, and it is partly for this reason he is receiving threats, and why his life should be protected because he embodies hope, and he's saying it out loud. His message, as I understand it, is that all people matter, and calls for unity during these trying times, and is a radical call for love in the sense of Dr. Martin Luther King. This is why he managed to upset an incumbent and why he received so many votes. Thus, his message matters, and he represents the type of threat to the Trump Administration more people should care about.

His view is ultimately in line with this blog: That despite these dark times society is living in hope is vital now more than ever.


-Cortelyou C. Kenney (Sept. 18, 2025, 2:25 pm CT).

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