Never in my lifetime did I think that things could be this bad — and getting worse. While there is no wiggle room in opposing the murder of Charlie Kirk, the virulent racist and anti-immigrant demigod — we should heed Dr. Martin Luther King’s philosophy of non-violence — it doesn’t mean that we can’t detest and resent the views that he espoused.

He pranced around the country expressing very hateful and detrimental views about people that more than likely led to a lot of pain and suffering for many Americans. Although he expressed that some deaths may be acceptable in order to protect gun rights and was totally callous and unempathetic, it is ironic that his family is receiving much empathy now. Would Kirk look at his own murder as the price of doing business in America and preserving rights? Would be be so nonchalant? Even one murder due to lax gun controls is too many. Life is so precious. It it is clear that Charlie Kirk — and Donald Trump for that matter — did not feel that way. Lives were expendable as long as they weren’t theirs or their loved ones.

Donald Trump announcing that Charlie Kirk would receive a Presidential Medal of Honor — awarded to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks — destroys the importance of the award. Kirk is an avowed racist and anti-immigrant espouser whose views are antithetical to the U.S. Constitution and democracy. He was a white nationalist. While some might call him a Christian nationalist, I wouldn’t because he distorts and ignores the tenets of Christianity that I learned as a child. He sowed hate where there was love. He destroyed other people’s lives for the sake of his own ego.