In the fight for freedom of speech, Charlie Kirk had been touching the hearts of teens and college students around the country. A memorial at UVU should be erected because it represents freedom of speech, not just Kirk. A group of Republican Utah lawmakers has started a fundraising campaign in memory of Charlie Kirk. They raised $118,000 with a goal to raise $150,000. With these funds they wanted to build a monument of a chair and a table that represents Kirk’s way of expressing his freedom of speech on the UVU campus. This memorial would be finished in bronze and may include a microphone and Bible sitting on the table.
Students signed a petition against the statue. Kirk’s memorial should be erected because it stands for Americans’ right to freedom of speech.
A recent article in The Salt Lake Tribune stated, “The petition had over 3,300 signatures. It called for no statue to be erected in Kirk’s image, and for no campus buildings or roads to be renamed after him.” UVU students that created the petition are using their freedom of speech, which is the very thing that Kirk represents and the very thing that the monument could memorialize. The irony of the students using their freedom to argue against a memorial for a man who represents freedom of speech is ridiculous.
The Kirk statue should be created in memory of freedom of speech. Americans need to be proud to have freedoms that let us be creative and express ourselves. We can’t take for granted what we so gratefully have. So when someone is prevented from using their freedoms it should be remembered, learned from and, hopefully, change.
Logan Peterson, Salt Lake City
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