A Standard We All Should Share: No Political Violence

Teresa Woorman
Sep 21
3 min read

Dear Friend,

The biggest news last week — the assassination of GOP activist Charlie Kirk — wasn’t about our community directly, but it certainly affected many of us. I didn’t like almost anything Charlie Kirk said or how he said it. But I would defend his right to say it, and he should have been criticized with words, not attacked with bullets. Gov. Wes Moore had it right when he said, “Political violence is never acceptable. Ever.”

Too often our reactions depend on who was targeted. Once people learn the identities involved, their outrage narrows to violence by the other side or against their own. If we only condemn attacks when they hit our team, we’re not defending a principle, we’re just choosing a side.

Some want to argue that one political side is worse than the other. I have my own opinion about this, but so what? Rather than engage in an endless argument over who’s worse, can we agree that political violence is terrible, no matter who the perpetrator is and who the victim is? We should all be angered, whether the victim of gun violence was then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) in 2011 or Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA) in 2017.

In more recent years, we’ve seen a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, violence on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol, a man who traveled to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home in 2022 with plans to break in and kill him, a 2022 home intruder attack against Paul Pelosi (husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi) that fractured Mr. Pelosi’s skull with a hammer, and two assassination attempts against President Trump in 2024. All of these events harm all of us.

In 2025, whether the victim of gun violence is Charlie Kirk, Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, an ICE officer in Texas, Israeli Embassy employees killed outside a Washington DC social event, or the security guard and others at the CDC, we should all be appalled. Late this past week in Maryland, we saw bomb threats against the homes of House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson, as well as a shooting at the U.S. Naval Academy. (This is, of course, only a partial list.) Every one of us should be angry about any and all of these incidents.

Instead, many are looking for someone (or a group) to blame. This tendency to blame a group for the worst actions of some of its members has always bothered me. Whether it was all Muslims being blamed for 9/11 or 10/7, all Jews being blamed for the actions of the Netanyahu government in Gaza, all Christians being blamed for Christian Nationalists, or all Latinos or Blacks being blamed for the actions of gang members, I’ve always believed that people should be judged only on their own individual actions: not those of anyone who happens to share their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political affiliation or other characteristic.

For me personally, that also includes not judging all undocumented immigrants based on the worst criminals, when most are otherwise law-abiding, positive contributors to our community.

Maybe it’s because I’m married to a white male, but I certainly won’t — and no one should — blame all young white males for the actions of the one young white male accused of the murder of Charlie Kirk. As I write this, the alleged shooter’s political views are unclear, but that doesn’t matter. His alleged actions are an abomination, regardless of his identity, political views, or motivations.

Former Speaker Pelosi, who grew up in Baltimore, visited Maryland on Friday and called for an end to political violence. “We just have to change the vitriolic nature of our debate,” she said. I had the honor of meeting her in 2023 and am impressed not only by her political accomplishments (I’m particularly thankful for her role in the enactment of Obamacare) but also by her personal commitment to nonviolence, even after the 2022 attack on her husband.

"We're all Americans," Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), whose wife Gabby Giffords was shot and permanently injured in 2011, said. "We have disagreements. We should be able to debate these disagreements, but it is never acceptable that someone resorts to violence." If they can urge nonviolence, can the rest of us?

I hope we all can find a way to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” and to feel empathy for the pain of others, whether we agree with their views or how they express them or not. Let’s have a spirited debate on the issues, but let’s stop the violence.

Sincerely,