Penn College Republicans hosted a vigil on Friday to honor the life of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated two days prior while speaking at a college campus in Utah.
The Sept. 12 event at Penn saw around 40 undergraduate and graduate students gather with candles around the Peace Symbol sculpture near Van Pelt-Dietrich Library. During the vigil, attendees took turns reciting prayers and speaking about Kirk’s legacy.
“I think it was just a certain chance to sort of get people together and just acknowledge the life that Charlie Kirk lived and talk about the impact that he had and the impact that he will have going forward,” College senior and College Republicans spokesperson Peter Kapp told The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Several speakers praised Kirk’s ability to draw young voters into the conservative movement.
“Not only did Charlie alone inspire so many younger conservatives, many of whom are probably standing with us today, [but] Charlie mobilized the conservative movement in unprecedented ways,” College senior and College Republicans President Mia Antonacci said in the vigil’s opening address.
Another student speaker said that “many” felt as if they had “lost a family member.” The student highlighted Kirk’s “gift” in connecting with the “youth” and addressing the “important issues” facing their generation.
Several students expressed anger over Kirk’s shooting and the reactions to it on campus.
One student called the assassination “the culmination of a concerted effort [by] left wing institutions, left wing media, left wing academia” to portray conservatives as “threats to democracy.” Another referred to the current political environment as a conflict of “good versus absolute evil” and called the “disrespect” surrounding Kirk’s death “disgusting.”
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Antonacci spoke with the DP after the event and criticized some of the reactions to Kirk’s death she had heard on campus and social media.
“It has been very disheartening to see some of the things that I’ve been seeing on Sidechat, on Instagram, and things like that,” she said. “It’s disheartening to know, more importantly, that I go to school with these people and [wonder], does the kid next to me hold a lot of anger and resentment towards conservatives and is happy that Charlie Kirk is dead? Is that someone I’m sitting next to?”
Other speakers condemned political violence and the divisive rhetoric that occurred after Kirk’s death, focusing on magnanimity.
“The mark of being a Christian is not how much you love Jesus … but how much you love Judas, the man who kills everything you love,” one speaker said. “So, as we go forth from today, what do we do? When people speak about this around us, respond with the love of the gospel. … The message of the gospel is to love your enemies, to pray for them.”
Kapp echoed a similar sentiment in an interview following the event, expressing his belief that “regardless of anybody’s political beliefs, it’s never acceptable to say this person deserved to die.”
Pennsylvania state Sen. Joe Picozzi (R-Philadelphia) spoke during the vigil, emphasizing the importance of “communal bonds” in the aftermath of the shooting.
“I think what you guys decided to do today — to stand together, to listen to each other, to build community — that is an important testimony as we’re early on in Charlie’s legacy,” Picozzi said.
Students listened to Picozzi speak during the vigil.
After the vigil, Picozzi spoke with the DP about how “losing humanity” in a digital world leads to a lack of empathy in political discourse.
“I think one of the biggest tasks for our generation is trying to figure out how to reclaim humanity in this digital age,” Picozzi told the DP. “I think we’re seeing some of the horror, the terrible consequences of digital modernity play out before us, and things like these people gathering in person together is part of the answer.”
Attendees sang “Amazing Grace” to end the vigil, before placing their candles on the ground surrounding the Peace Symbol statue.
After the event, Antonacci explained the path forward for College Republicans after the shooting.
“I think we have to start reaching out. There are a lot of conservatives who are hurting, who feel certain ways,” she said. “Tonight, for example, we had members of the law school here. We had members of the MBA program. What we do is we continue to grow our circle. We continue to be the people that can create this movement and carry it forward.”
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Senior reporter Alex Dash leads coverage of politics and can be reached at dash@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies history and political science. Follow him on X @AlexBDash.
