Emotions ran high at the Duke Kahanamoku Statue in Waikīkī Friday as scores gathered to mourn the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, co-founder of conservative media organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University. And as the fallout from the killing continues to reverberate worldwide, Hawai‘i conservatives came together to grieve.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Joshua Marquez, organizer of the Friday vigil, to Aloha State Daily. “I’ve been watching Charlie for years. I’ve been a big fan.”
Marquez said the Friday event was a grassroots-organized event, not directly affiliated with Turning Point or any specific conservative organization. Marquez expected attendance of up to 200 people. At the event's busiest, there seemed to be more than 100 attendees at a time, although the distinction between intentional attendee and interested passerby was blurred, given the Friday night Waikīkī beach crowds.
“People don’t think of Hawaiians as conservative,” Marquez said, but gestured to the gathering as a sign to the contrary. “He was turning everybody more patriotic.”
The vigil consisted of prayer, praise songs and testimony from attendees. Alongside pictures of Kirk were printouts of Bible verses, art of Kirk and Jesus Christ in an embrace, and a sign reading “Charlie Kirk is a martyr,” as the crowd sang worship songs together.
As the event went on, several people took up the microphone to commemorate Kirk and his mission. Several urged forgiveness and warned against choosing hate.
Rocklin Youngstrom, chair of the Hawai‘i Young Republicans, said she became politically active at 16 during the COVID-19 pandemic, participating in online debates and “learned all the best points from Charlie Kirk." Last year, she attended the Republican National Convention, where she was able to meet Kirk personally.
“He was so much more than just Republican politics,” Youngstrom told ASD.
Glen Miguel-Matsumoto, former president of the Turning Point chapter at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, said Kirk was “one of the boldest people of our generation,” who was able to reach out to a wide range of people.
This was a virtue repeated by several attendees and speakers, who extolled Kirk’s willingness to speak with anyone and offer them a chance for debate.
“He brought everyone together,” Marquez said, sporting a shirt reading “1 out of 3 liberals is just as stupid as the other 2.”
One attendee, Rachel — she declined to be identified with a surname — said Kirk had become “the voice for Gen Z,” and was “changing the direction of the country in the best way.”
“I hope young people will rise up in the multitudes and affect the future of the country,” Rachel said. “Bring it back to a godly country.”
Many predicted support for Turning Point and conservatism in general will grow following Kirk's death.
“Now, more than ever, people have to come to Christ as fellow Americans,” Youngstrom said, addressing the crowd, before adding that “it is good versus evil now.”
Miguel-Matsumoto said the UH-Mānoa Turning Point chapter has been largely dormant for the past few years, but expects it will reactivate amid a swell of interest.
Darlene Mizrahi, a student at Hawai‘i Pacific University expected to take over leadership of a multi-campus Turning Point Chapter, said she has met her closest friends through Turning Point, which she said feels like a second family as she studies out-of-state.
As for Kirk’s death itself, attendees floated different theories as to the killer’s motive. As of Friday, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was in police custody as a primary suspect.
“I think he’s mentally ill,” Marquez said. “He couldn't accept the facts that Charlie was saying.”
“[Kirk] did nothing to anyone,” said attendee Sheryl Bieler. “He would give anyone 15 minutes to debate him … you’re gonna kill him for that?”
Rachel said Robinson had been misled by the media, which she said had unfairly painted Kirk and Turning point as “fascists and Nazis.” She referenced messages engraved on bullet casings in Robinson’s possession, one of which read “hey, fascist! Catch!” and then the sequence of arrows, ↑ → ↓↓↓, associated with the Antifa movement according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
“But we’re not fascists and we’re not Nazis,” Rachel said.
The civility of the event was only interrupted once, during a minor altercation as the vigil wound down. A group of passersby shouted obscenities and flashed the middle finger, leading to a confrontation with one or more attendees, according to attendees.
“It was a scuffle that turned into a brawl,” Bieler said, although the fight was broken up very quickly with no arrests, as Marquez and others urged attendees to focus on commemorating Kirk. But Bieler said the fight proved that conservatives are ready to fight following Kirk’s death.
“They woke us up,” Bieler said. “We’re not playing games anymore.
“We’ve allowed this for too long,” Bieler went on, citing, for example, her disagreements with transgender ideology.
“We’re not ever gonna stop,” Marquez told ASD. “Charlie’s gonna be with us forever.”
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