American Health Revolution is a platform focused on Five Cornerstones of Health. The third of these cornerstones is Healing a Traumatized and Addicted Nation. Since American Health Revolution is non-partisan, we will not debate politics but rather focus on healing our divided and traumatized nation, especially those who now feel grief and bereavement over the death of Charlie Kirk.
Merriam Webster defines grief as “deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement.” Grief is derived from the Latin word gravis “heavy, oppressive, serious.” Merriam Webster defines bereaved as “someone who is suffering the death of a loved one” and bereave as “to deprive of something” and “to take away (a valued or necessary possession) especially by force” and is derived from the Old English word “to rob.”
Many who followed Mr. Kirk are experiencing his death with a deep sense of personal loss, as if they had lost a family member, loved one or friend, with grief, i.e. that heavy, oppressive deep and poignant distress, and bereavement, i.e. suffering the death of a loved one, feeling deprived of something that has been taken away by force, feeling robbed. Many more people who did not know anything or much about Charlie Kirk have had the same sense of personal loss.
What can we learn from Charlie Kirk? It is not the goal of this essay to review Charlie Kirk’s political and religious beliefs, rather the goal is to emphasize his message of the need for open and respectful discourse.
Mr. Kirk repeatedly said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. That’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil, and they lose their humanity.” Charlie Kirk and former Obama advisor and CNN analyst Van Jones had engaged in back-and-forth exchanges on X during the week prior to his death.
On September 9, just a day before Mr. Kirk was assassinated, he “reached out to Jones in a direct message on X. ‘Hey Van, I mean it, I’d love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race,’ Mr. Kirk wrote in his message, which Mr. Jones shared on his Instagram.”
“I would be a gentleman as I know you would be as well,” the slain 31-year-old conservative activist had added. “We can disagree about the issues agreeably.”
Mr. Jones, who said he and Kirk were ‘beefing hard’ in the last week of the Turning Point USA founder’s life, was clearly moved by the message.” Jones added, “The last day of his life, he was reaching out to have not more censorship, [but] more conversation, more dialogue, with somebody who, honestly, was one of his adversaries – me.” Jones said he hoped sharing Kirk’s message with the world ‘might help somebody, on both sides, deal with issues more like he did.’
What can we do to help heal a traumatized nation?
We can pray for Mr. Kirk’s wife Erika and their two children, who will never again have a chance to see their beloved husband and father. We can pray for those who have experienced this senseless killing as a personal loss. And we can begin this journey of healing together by offering support and hope for a healthier society where our common goal is to improve the health of our communities through kindness, compassion and healthy communication.
At American Health Revolution our goal is to host meaningful conversations and share verifiable, and actionable information to enhance our physical, mental and spiritual health. Our Cornerstones focus on improving the nutrient density and quality of food, reducing toxins in our environment, exploring the causes of our chronic physical, mental health, and substance use epidemics, and promoting health freedom and informed consent. At American Health Revolution we appreciate that although there will be differing opinions, we will always practice decency, respect and kindness through empathic listening to each other without judgment and recrimination, in our common quest to improve our nation’s health.
Please join us and support us on our mutual journey of searching for the answers to our existential physical, mental health and substance use issues, “to have not more censorship, [but] more conversation, more dialogue.”
