Now what?
Some genius in the Oklahoma Legislature has authored a bill requiring every state higher ed campus to construct a martyr’s shrine to Charlie Kirk.
Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, pre-filed SB 1187. This bill calls for “requiring squares or plazas” to commemorate Charlie Kirk at every Oklahoma public college or university with legislature-approved signage and statues of Kirk.
The purpose, according to the bill, is “to perpetuate his legacy as a martyr for truth, faith, and the First Amendment.”
Here are some details of what Jett envisions, which the bill specifies in these words:
– Each square or plaza shall include permanent signage commemorating Charlie Kirk’s courage and faith and explaining the significance of Charlie Kirk as a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate.
– Square or plaza plans shall include a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him or a statue of Charlie Kirk and his wife standing and holding their children in their arms as a central element of the square or plaza design.
– The statue design and size shall be approved by the Legislature as part of the overall design review and approval process.
State colleges, then, would be mandated – under penalty of fines for not complying – to highlight “the principles Kirk championed,” including his Christian faith and advocacy for free speech. The First Amendment is not all that Kirk “championed,” however. He pushed plenty of other, cringe-inducing “principles.” Suffice it to say that erecting a shrine to Charlie Kirk on every public college and university campus would amount to state endorsement of bigotry, if not white supremacy.
It also would make the characterization of Kirk as a “martyr” an official state designation, coercing every state higher ed institution into doing the same.
All this would go over real well, I imagine, at Langston University, Oklahoma’s only HBCU. Or anywhere else with thinking people who reject bashing transgender people, the doxxing of academics, his admitted prejudice against Blacks, the racist and antisemitic Great Replacement Theory he preached, and his advocacy for creating a Christian theocracy in the United States. These are a few examples that disqualify him from being held up as the “voice of a generation” or, good God, “a modern civil rights leader.”
I’m not trying to write ill of the dead in raising these issues. Kirk’s ghastly murder was a terrible crime. At the same time, I am among many others who feel obligated to speak up when what he stood for is being whitewashed.
Meanwhile, consider the source of this bill. I don’t want to veer into an ad hominem argument, but Shane Jett is the same senator [and former state representative] who during our last legislative session sponsored a resolution proclaiming that “Christ is King.”
Jett appears to be in a hurry to push the Kirk bill forward. It is months before the filing deadline for new legislation [Jan. 15, 2026]. Further, Jet has flagged this as an “emergency” bill. It makes one wonder about his sense of urgency. Surely he wouldn’t be exploiting Kirk’s death for publicity while emotions are running high.
Surely not.
