Don’t punish students who painted over a Charlie Kirk memorial at UNCW | Opinion
By Issac J. Bailey
The University of North Carolina-Wilmington is being pressured to punish students for doing what it has long encouraged students to do, openly practice free expression and demonstrate its unique power and purpose.
It’s what every college and university should encourage students to do, and every college and university should support those students when they answer that call.
A group of students did just that when they painted one of UNCW’s two large “spirit rocks” with a tribute to conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk around 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 15 — as did a group of students who painted over the tribute around 11 a.m. the next day.
A university statement said, “The UNCW spirit rock is not a memorial. It is a platform for freedom of expression,” and noted that students are asked to leave artwork for at least 24 hours “out of courtesy” but that “no policy requires this.”
In fact, the university’s policy says that it “does not monitor such compliance.”
The spirit rocks get painted over multiple times a week because no singular group is entitled to have their message seen any more than any other group. That’s as it should be. Yet the university told students Monday, Sept. 22, it would temporarily restrict freedom of expression events and use of its spirit rocks in response to “tensions that emerged on campus last week.”
UNCW must hold firm. UNCW must not give in, mustn’t relent to mobs trying to undermine its commitment to free expression to score political points in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination.
We need more examples of people not giving into the mob, but the school is under enormous pressure to undermine its laudable tradition, including from UNC Board of Governors member Woody White.
I hope UNCW knows there are plenty of people rooting for it to value free expression.
Since Kirk’s death, there has been a concerted effort to silence his critics. We’ve seen places such as Clemson University take the path blazed by cowards and fire professors for constitutionally-protected speech. Clemson officials didn’t just cave to the mob. They joined it.
There are too many examples to list of people losing jobs over comments. The Emerald Island Police Department placed an officer on leave and under investigation in North Carolina. Texas State University expelled a student for mocking Kirk’s death after Gov. Greg Abbott said he should be expelled “immediately.” The Washington Post fired a Black opinion columnist for engaging in the kind of commentary for which Kirk is being lionized. ABC, which previously paid a ransom to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, temporarily pulled comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air after pressure from the Trump administration.
Ball State University fired an employee even after she repeatedly expressed empathy for Kirk. Why? Because university officials didn’t like that she also criticized how Kirk lived.
“Let me be clear: if you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends,” she wrote. “His death is a tragedy, and I can and do feel for his wife and children. I believe in the Resurrection, and while it’s difficult, I can and do pray for his soul. Charlie Kirk’s death is a reflection of the violence, fear, and hatred he sowed. It does not excuse his death, AND it’s a sad truth.”
Every word of posts like hers are protected speech, especially at public universities such as Ball State and Clemson. When employees are fired or suspended for speech at such places, it means the government is punishing speech.
You may like when that hammer is used against people you don’t like. But that hammer is never wielded only against your enemies.
UNCW’s tradition is commendable, providing students a place to demonstrate such an important principle. Instead, the school is being demonized by Kirk supporters who want students punished for daring to not be fans of Kirk. The irony is they want students punished for things they celebrate Kirk for having done.
It’s a dangerous development, more erosion of our democracy during the second Trump administration. The president has set the stage for that erosion, finding ways to punish opponents by using the power granted him by the people to silence voices he doesn’t want to hear. And it’s getting worse by the day, led by people who believe they are righteous.
That fervor was crystallized during a House hearing called to examine the FBI’s handling of the search for and arrest of Kirk’s alleged killer. During it, Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas stopped short of comparing Kirk to Jesus, but said, “I would say if Charlie Kirk lived in the biblical times, he’d have been the 13th disciple.”
Kirk is not Jesus. But we have the constitutional right to criticize Jesus, too.
Issac J. Bailey is a McClatchy opinion writer in North Carolina and South Carolina.