Virginians are desperate for a change in tone. The Charlie Kirk memorial at UVA hit all the right notes.

I was proud of the University of Virginia students speaking last evening at the Charlie Kirk memorial held in Cabell Hall. The message was pitch-perfect: a celebration (as advertised) of free speech and civil dialogue. The students’ uplifting message was echoed by Attorney General Jason Miyares and UVA faculty legends Larry Sabato and Ken Elzinga.

Since Kirk’s assassination, social media has been its usual cesspool. Left and right affixing blame for political violence upon the other. Lefties tut-tutting that violence was not justified but Charlie Kirk was a horrible person, others celebrating his death openly. Their counterparts on the right tarring all Democrats, progressives, and leftists with extremist sentiments expressed on Tik Tok and Twitter.

The UVA students sponsoring the UVA Kirk memorial — Young Americans for Freedom, the College Republicans, Turning Point USA — stayed positive. They did not call for vengeance but for forgiveness. They did not demonize those with different views. They called for comity, for engaging with and listening to others.

As the country immolates itself with hatred and political violence, this is a message that most Americans desperately want to hear.

Readers may have noticed that I have significantly cut back my posts on Bacon’s Rebellion. I make an exception today, before heading off for a two-week vacation in France. (For what it’s worth, the atmosphere in France is just as ugly as it is here. The center is not merely eroding. It has collapsed. Demonstrations and strikes are breaking out everywhere.) I am hoping against hope that, thanks to events like the UVA memorial and another taking place at Virginia Tech today, the mood in Virginia will be a little less rancorous when I return. — JAB