1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

Dear Representative Elfreth, I am writing to express my disappointment and disgust with your choice to vote yes for the Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance. While he was alive, Charlie Kirk did nothing but spew bigoted rhetoric aimed a inciting an already aggressive audience to violence. He worked on a regular basis to further the divide in this country and encourage his followers' bigoted beliefs. For any Democrat to vote in favor of sanitizing his image with a holiday, is unthinkable. You might as well have voted to recognize White Supremacy as a valid political position (your vote certainly helped that along). Votes like this are the reason that Democratic voters can't trust out representatives to fight for us against the ever-present threat of authoritarianism. You side with authoritarians to retain the moral high ground and cause even more harm. Voting no on this bill would not have signaled callousness or indifference to his family's loss. It would have shown that you were clear-eyed about the threat that we are facing and the harm that sanitizing his image and rhetoric will do. You could have expressed your condolences via statement without siding with Republicans on this, instead you and your vote threw people that supported you and look to you for protection under the bus. You sent the message that the harm that he did to marginalized individuals and communities was acceptable because he was killed. You have sent the message that his life is more valuable than that of anyone whose life he imperiled with his dangerous rhetoric. There have been countless innocent victims of gun violence in America that Congress has ignored. Everyday Americans don't get congressional votes in favor of remembrance. We can barely get Congress to take any action at all. We are all trying to stay safe in a world that people like Kirk helped create. Children in elementary schools and murdered Democratic representatives can't get this level of pubic outcry from both sides of the aisle, why should he? As much as no one wants his death or other gun deaths to be politicized — they are the result of policy. His words and views helped shape that policy and influence voters. Your support of this resolution, your support of his martyrdom, will help to shape policy in a way that takes us further away from true justice.