An Oct. 14 community commemoration for Charlie Kirk at the UAS Noyes Pavilion ended with a candle vigil. (Photo courtesy of Shannan Greene)

By Whalesong Staff

On the day that President Donald Trump posthumously awarded Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and revoked the visas of six foreign citizens accused of criticizing Kirk, the life and work of the conservative political activist was celebrated in Juneau.

In the firelight of the UAS Noyes Pavilion on Tuesday, Oct. 14, Juneau’s Sherry Patterson led the crowd in singing the old Christian hymn, Amazing Grace, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance punctuated with the squawks of Stellar Jays.

Kirk was co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, which launched in 2012. He was on a speaking tour of college campuses when he was killed Sept. 10, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The day after the shooting, Tyler James Robinson, 22, turned himself into Utah authorities as the gunman.

The Juneau event incorporated audio recordings of interviews with Kirk, including advice to young people that “if you want to succeed, going to college is a really good way to not do that.”

“At the age of 22 in 2016, I was on a first-name basis with then-candidate Donald Trump,”  and Turning Point USA had 75 employees plus a large budget, he said in a recording. Kirk also worked on the first Trump presidential campaign that year. He was the primary fundraiser and CEO for Turning Point USA from its launch until his death.

In the recording, Kirk said he was far ahead of his peers who had graduated from college, because he was traveling the country, meeting new people, and speaking at events. That had given him “a four-year head start,” he said.

The University of Alaska Southeast did not sponsor the Juneau observance for Kirk; it was pulled together by community members.

UAS 2022 Political Science graduate Riley Nye was the main speaker. He said Kirk was assassinated because he was exercising his freedom of speech.

“Charlie had to speak freely, to hold events, to share ideas, because here’s the truth, when you protect someone else’s right to speak, you protect your own,” Nye said.

When people speak openly and respect the process of dialogue, “we all move forward,” Nye told the crowd.

Riley Nye, a 2022 UAS graduate, told the crowd gathered to memorialize Charlie Kirk that an attack on one American’s free speech is an attack on all Americans.

“We don’t have to agree on everything, and frankly, we shouldn’t,” he said. “But we do have to be willing to engage, to listen, to show up in the conversation even when it’s uncomfortable. That’s not just political maturity, that’s democratic responsibility.”

Well over 100 people attended the Tuesday event, declared earlier that day by Gov. Mike Dunleavy as Charlie Kirk Day in Alaska.

In his Oct. 14 pronouncement, Dunleavy said Kirk “exemplified uncommon courage in pursuing dialogue where it was most difficult…fought for the rights of those who disagreed with him to speak freely…and gave his life in defense of these freedoms.”

The governor said it was fitting that the State of Alaska “honor Kirk’s legacy and recommit itself to the enduring protection of the First Amendment.”

At the Juneau observance, Nye said Kirk’s “right to speak was taken from him. And that’s not just an attack on Charlie Kirk, that’s an attack on all of us, on our country, and on our constitution.”

President Trump also declared Oct. 14, Kirk’s birthday, as a National Day of Remembrance. Kirk would have been 32 years old.