Empathy only path forward after Kirk's death

It wasn't the greeting I was expecting from my dad when I stopped by for lunch last week at his Anaheim home.

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CHARLY TRIBALLEAU AFP via Getty Images A WOMAN takes a photo of a memorial for Charlie Kirk during a vigil at Arizona State University.

"¿Quién es Charlie Kirk?" Papi still has a flip phone, so he hasn't sunk into an endless stream of YouTube and podcasts like some of his friends. His sources of news are Univisión and the top-of-thehour bulletins on Mexican oldies stations- far away from Kirk's conservative supernova.

"Some political activist," I replied. "Why?" "The news said he got shot." Papi kept watering his roses while I went on my laptop to learn more. My stomach churned and my heart sank as graphic videos of Kirk taking a bullet in the neck while speaking to students at Utah Valley University peppered my social media feeds. What made me even sicker was that everyone online already thought they knew who did it, even though law enforcement hadn't identified a suspect.

Conservatives blamed liberalism for demonizing one of their heroes and vowed vengeance. Some progressives argued that Kirk had it coming because of his long history of incendiary statements on issues including affirmative action, trans people and Islam.

Both sides predicted an escalation of political violence in the wake of Kirk's killing-fueled by the other side against innocents, of course.

It was the internet at its worst, so I closed my laptop and checked on my dad. He had moved on to cleaning the pool.

"So who was he?" Papi asked again. By then, Donald Trump had announced Kirk's death. Text messages streamed in from my colleagues. I gave my dad a brief sketch of Kirk's life, and he frowned when I said the commentator had supported Trump's mass deportation dreams.

Hate wasn't on Papi's mind, however.

"It's sad that he got killed," Papi said. "May God bless him and his family." "Are politics going to get worse now?" he added.