Words matter because truth matters.

The truth is, Charlie Kirk’s words hurt millions. They demonized, diminished, and devalued a huge swath of our population.

Who we honor matters.

I’m not saying Kirk didn’t matter. For millions he did. Though I disagreed with him vehemently, I would not choose to take away their choice of hero, even though he was not mine.

But who we honor as a nation matters.

Canonized and martyred in death, an influencer has become the beneficiary of our nation’s highest honors.

A day of remembrance sanctioned by Congress.

The American flag flown at half staff something denied a former president by the current one.

And most egregiously, Charlie Kirk will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US awarded by the president to those who have made exemplary contributions to the nation or the world.

Men and women whose words and actions mattered.

What would former Medal of Freedom recipients like Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisholm, or Rosa Parks think of  Charlie’s comments around Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson: “Black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.” Or insisting Black people were “better” in the 1940s under Jim Crow Laws  because “they committed less crime.”

He dismissed King as “an awful person”  and called “George Floyd a “scumbag.” He labeled the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “a mistake.” Is he worthy of the award bestowed upon John Lewis or Medgar Evers?

The same honor awarded to Gloria Steinem and Shirley Chilsom is now being given to  a man who said that a woman’s natural place is under her husband’s control and suggested that women should submit to their husbands and bear more children.

The same medal of Freedom given to Harvey Milk is now being given to a man who called LGBTQ people groomers and said they should be killed. In fact, he reiterated this point just minutes before he was shot. He said that Leviticus 20:13 the Bible verse that says gay men should be put to death, is “God’s perfect law.”

“I can’t stand the word empathy, actually,” Kirk said. “I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.” Former Medal of Freedom recipient Mother Theresa would vehemently disagree

Charlie claimed the racist “Great Replacement “ theory is real, argued that immigration exists to diminish white demographics, and mocked the very idea of white privilege. He trafficked in antisemitic stereotypes about “Jewish money.” How can this same medal of honor given to Elie Wiesel not be tarnished by these ugly words?

Now the words of praise pouring out at his funeral are solidifying a white Christian nationalist ideology.

Words matter.

As a white, Jewish woman, I am horrified.

As an American, I am terrified.