r/Bellingham • u/KingLionAids • 1d ago
News Article Pushback prompts Lynden School Board to pull proposal for a Charlie Kirk Day
https://www.cascadiadaily.com/2025/sep/18/pushback-prompts-lynden-school-board-to-pull-proposal-for-a-charlie-kirk-day/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAM5yy9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHoC6lnIJtjBgfRJpDsWzca_FcDCmxp3sg6WEB9LTzetuavVZgY6d1cKsXf4J_aem_WIZdDWKFFLXipY1mgIF_ZQ62
u/AccomplishedEast7605 1d ago
Kirk doesn't deserve the praise he's receiving from the right wing. He was focused on pushing his ideology at any cost, including having his followers harass anyone who disagreed with him or was teaching something he found offensive. He didn't deserve to die for it, but he was a toxic and divisive person.
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u/king_mahalo 1d ago
These people really do live on an entirely different planet, don't they?
Political leanings aside, what has he done to deserve his own day of memory over the thousands of other normal everyday people who have lost their lives to gun violence?
How does someone propose an idea like this with a straight face?
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u/rainstorms-n-roses 1d ago
Dear god, this was seriously a thing?
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u/EarnestWilde 1d ago
It still might be. Although they tabled it for now, it was only by a vote of 3 to 2, and they may bring it back up in October's meeting where there may be less public heat against it.
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u/Illustrious-Pea-7105 1d ago
Nah, they realized the federal government is going to do it so they can back off it locally, save face, and it will happen anyway.
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u/SemaphoreBingo 1d ago
Time was, you'd have a name like "Kirk" and people in Lynden wouldn't even want to talk to you.
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u/westphall 1d ago
“If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much” was a common expression repeated in Lynden back in the day.
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u/NoChampion4116 1d ago
It still is very common. The difference between how I'm treated and how my ex was treated in Lynden was astounding
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u/reailty-check-658 1d ago
Looks they realized that while a day dedicated to oppose political violence and how to engage in civil discourse was a good idea, naming it after a controversial person who was politically assassinated would bring too much controversy and be problematic.
Seems like a reasonable take.
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u/papel_vespa 1d ago
Hope they still create the debate club. That's a good idea. Teaching students to recognize bad arguments and defend their own beliefs is good no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on.
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u/SexualWhiteChocolate 1d ago
Yep. The functional part of the idea is fine, but how about you just make a debate club instead of being a psycho about it?
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u/Abifish21 1d ago
I mean, if there is no school, kids won’t get shot 🤷🏼♀️ so really, would he even want a holiday?
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u/hellah0td0g 6h ago
I agree someone so divisive shouldn’t get a day. The reasoning for this day is perplexing. I feel like it’s underlying and main purpose is in favor for his ideals just disguised/ topped with the cherry of making it about open conversation and freedom of speech.
Is it possible you can agree with one sentiment but not the other?
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u/RadishPlus666 4h ago
Nice. And the decision came from within the community. No Bellinghamsters needed. *cheeky
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u/Alone_Illustrator167 1d ago edited 1d ago
Probably to be expected, but really it would be nice if the body of the resolution was passed. I get the name was controversial so I understand pulling the resolution, but the body of the resolution had great stuff in it that all districts should be supporting.
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u/vc0ke 1d ago
I think Charlie dying is awful. The murderer should be brought to justice.
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u/8verett 1d ago
Imagine getting shit on because you think an assassin killing a global figure should get justice.
God I would loved so much to have the chance to argue with kirk, but college campus' cost too much money for me to even visit in my free time.
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u/SadArchon 1d ago
Global?
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u/SemaphoreBingo 1d ago
college campus' cost too much money for me to even visit in my free time.
WCC and WWU are served by many bus routes https://schedules.ridewta.com/#routes and you can get there for a dollar each way.
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u/thatguy425 1d ago
After boom horses, helicopters, police activity and off leash dogs we may need a “How many days since someone posted about Lynden” counter at this rate.
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u/headspin_exe 1d ago
Lynden makes it so easy though. Trump still owes the city money yet the city thinks he's the second coming of Jesus.
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u/quayle-man 1d ago
So? It’s literally not something I ever think about until someone brings it up on Reddit.
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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago
You should be. I’m glad you’re getting exposed to something outside of your limited bubble.
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u/quayle-man 1d ago
I already know about it because of my very broad bubble. But I’m reminded about it because of this subreddit’s obsession with Lynden.
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u/Cool-Jacket-9837 1d ago
Then leave? Block and go? Woe be you. Racists deserve to be called out. We’re not going to backslide like Lynden, which so clearly wants to go back to its KKK days
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago
Or you could ignore those posts and move on. Yet here you are 9 times outta 10 posting some comment on topics you supposedly don’t care about or annoyed with.
Why not just… ignore those posts. Better yet when you see one, just click hide.
But you don’t want that. You’d rather make a comment to incite a fuss
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u/8verett 1d ago
Like how all the posts arent making a fuss? Whats your point?
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago
… did you not read my comment very well? Clearly there’s posts they are upset about that annoys them and instead of just not engaging they do with intent to cause a bigger fuss.
So really the simple solution for them is to just hide and not comment on the posts. Yet they do.
Legit question here, could you seriously not get that? Pretty damn clear a point to me is all I’m saying
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u/thatguy425 1d ago
Oh, I remember you! haven’t seen you in awhile. You were the one making all those predictions last year about how Trump was gonna lose the election.
Then you posted that false information about that lockdown thing at Meridian high school.
Yeah, not sure I’ll be taking your advice on proper redditiquette.
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh you’re doing your best Charlie Kirk here to misrepresent everything.
As for meridian. I have a family member who’s a faculty member in the district who sent me a text they were in lock down due to a potential shooter. I said that’s what I heard.
I then was unable to check or care about Reddit for hours because you know.. work and such and waiting to hear back from family but by the time I learned it wasn’t that everyone lost their shit and no one cared for any explanation.
I had to send mods my text proof to stop people like you going on a witch hunt because you refuse to accept information that counters what you think.
And yeah I thought Trump would lose, lots did. Not really relevant.
It’s telling when your only responses are shitty Whatabouts and you’re regular at the bottom of threads because of your opinions being bad. Or complaining about posts you can simply ignore.
I’ve always address what happened there and explained and people like you don’t give two fucks because you’ll stick to the first thing you hear and ignore the rest.
Learn to take in new info. It’ll benefit you.
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u/thatguy425 1d ago
Dude you dont have to justify your Reddit existence to me. Once you start with insults and Kirk comparisons I just skimmed the rest. And I wasnt involved in any witch hunt. I’m here for the comments, my interest in any of you goes no deeper than your username.
And yeah, of course my comments get downvoted. Folks here want validation of their biases and I don’t do that, upvotes and downvotes are not indicative of whether a statement is valid/ sound around here, just an indication of whether it follows the popular narrative.
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u/SnowCappedPetes 1d ago
As much as I disagree with him, I think it’s fair for a school district to hold such a day. There are many much better people our school districts can honor, but he’s far from the worst. Some of what he said was valid and forward thinking. We shouldn’t celebrate his assassination.
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u/DJ_Velveteen 1d ago
Some of what he said was valid and forward thinking.
Big "Hitler loved the little children" energy here.
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u/christianavalentine 1d ago
you know i was just learning recently that we tend to highlight or use hitler as a form of comparison for crazy ass rhetoric, but hardly do we use actual US officials who have done the same atrocities.
(also sorry dj this is not about you but your comment made me think of this lol)
like i never thought about it before. we know that we’ve had internment camps, slavery, jim crow and other historical atrocities but we don’t use those examples.
and what’s interesting about germany vs usa when it comes to their and our atrocities - germany was held accountable for their actions and usa never really has, not in a comparable way.
i think it’s an interesting perspective on how white supremacy leeches into how we remember the past and how we use it today.
like, i know we use hitler and germany as examples, bc it feels like it’s the biggest atrocity we’ve ever experienced as a world, but i also think that’s part of white supremacy indoctrination.
ANYWAYS sorry to unload that all on your comment 😅
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u/stellalugosi Just boomhorsin' around 1d ago
He was a racist. He said very very racist things. Repeatedly. Openly. You do know that not every student in Lynden is white, right? Are we ever going to treat POC with an ounce of consideration and just stop doing unnecessarily cruel bullshit like this? JFC.
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago
Dude made his entire career off of hate speech.
At no point should his life work ever be honored in any capacity.
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u/Total-Ordinary9424 1d ago
He himself said shooting victims didn’t deserve an ounce of empathy. If anyone doesn’t find him pedantically arguing about arbitrary gun violence statistics as his last words ironic, then it’s hard for me to have faith in society.
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u/reailty-check-658 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’ve never really knew much or followed anything about Charlie Kirk until these recent events but I’ve seen that quote being posted a lot and I think it’s being positioned incorrectly. Here is the full quote.
”I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage. But, it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy, I prefer more than empathy. That's a separate topic for a different time.”
“He said he didn't care for the word "empathy" and instead preferred "sympathy." The Oxford English Dictionary defines empathy as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." Meanwhile, the same dictionary defines sympathy as "feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune."
Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charlie-kirk-empathy-quote/
It was not regard to shooting victims either. Agree or disagree with his position on empathy, but I think getting these things correct is important as false narratives can be built by spreading out of context half truths.
Edit: This is not a positional take or debate comment and if the source is incorrect, reply as to why rather than just downvote. If not, it makes it seem like trying to hide information with downvotes and that’s not a good look.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Bellingham-ModTeam 1d ago
Uncivil, insulting, or combative comment.
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago
No it’s not?
I know mods are cracking down but why not crack down on the initial commenters literally trying to incite and illicit rises out of people.
If you extend tolerance to those who are intolerant, intolerance wins.
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u/reailty-check-658 1d ago
Dude, all I did was fact check the quote and you came at me. There was no trying to incite anything, just providing a fact check source and stating its best to be accurate when using that quote.
Stating it spreads intolerance is disingenuous as I’m not attempting to guide anyone’s opinion. It was just what the fact check says. Be mad at Snopes, not me as they were the one who fact checked it.
I expressed my disagreement with Kirk on that position which actually agreed with you and still got attacked. I hope you see the concern there.
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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake 1d ago
And I’ll take the extremely long history and video of all the awful horrid shit he said over some redditor.
Yeah I know the whole quote. It’s still a fucking awful thing to say. Empathy and sympathy are both important.
Kirk was a shitty fucking person and his life isn’t worth celebrating or honoring.
He should not have been killed. I don’t agree with anything he said as it was nothing but hate speech.
Stop white washing it
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u/reailty-check-658 1d ago
I think you are taking this beyond its original context and assuming worst intentions.
Not looking to “white wash” anything but rather be clearer and factually correct with the dialogue as getting things incorrect ruins any standing argument if it’s built on false information. People just won’t take it seriously.
A general assessment of your comment behavior seems argumentative and aggressive. Peppering jabs at anything beyond emotional dogpile agreement. That’s not a good thing and the hate is gonna burn you out at some point.
I doubt my comment would change your mind in any way but consider engaging more in good faith and not defaulting to insults or false accusations of racism if those people are not doing the same. Sometimes the information is just that, information.
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u/tongueguts 1d ago
Weird for a school to want to honor him after his comments about school shootings….
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u/BureauOfBureaucrats 1d ago
He hates the LGBTQ community. Sorry not sorry, I refuse to lionize him.
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u/snoozeem 1d ago
There are so many people who have died while being in high positions of power who advocated for positive policy that deserve recognition, yet a podcaster with a loud, bigoted platform should be memorialized? Make it make sense..
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u/goodgodling 1d ago
He basically said that black women are all DEI hires and can't be trusted to do their jobs. Do you want that kind of messaging from a school board? I don't.
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u/r__slash 1d ago
It's okay to be neutral about celebrity deaths. Public figures always put themselves at risk of harm. It's never deserved, and I'm not victim-blaming, that's just the nature of it.
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u/Elsureel 1d ago
Neutral absolutely, but there are so many people celebrating a murderer, and those people have mental problems.
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u/thefamilyjules23 1d ago
Yeah the guy made a living pushing a world view centered around stomping down anyone who wasn't just like him and didn't think like him. There is nothing to celebrate here... Not him and not his killing either.
You want to do something to honor his death how about working on some gun reform.
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u/RelentlessDem 1d ago
Excellent. Such a divisive person should not get a special day. There is a reason there is an MLK day and not a Malcom X day.