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The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a truly disturbing event.
Kash Patel's militaristic reference to "the watch" and "Valhalla," however, was exquisitely alarming.
Further, the military honor guard for Kirk's casket was bewilderingly offensive, as he had no military/governing right to the honor.
Is the honor guard meant to indicate MAGA/presidential validation of the ethnotheocratic movement Kirk promoted?
The Nazi and neo-Nazi movements glorify and mythologize racial and religious purity/conflict.
How can we perceive Patel's reference other than as a call to arms for white Christian nationalists to conflict with American civil society?
Kirk was a charismatic person promoting a toxic philosophy couched in conservative talking points.
His manipulation of young people with pseudo-Christian symbolism and faux, performative "debate" disparaging fellow citizens and our secular civil governance were patently un-American.
We are all saddened by the murder of a fellow human being.
In that sorrow, though, let us be clear-eyed about the divisive legacy of Kirk and the harrowing danger of pagan military symbolism invoked by our nation's top law enforcement official to activate white Christian nationalist fury.
The threat to our democracy is mounting. We should demand the resignation of Patel and condemnation of Kirk's perverse agenda.
Mike Shivers
Altoona