To mark George Floyd or Charlie Kirk?

October 14 will mark the birthday of two very different American martyrs.

On that day in 1973, George Floyd was born. And, as everyone knows only too well, he died in 2020 after being placed under arrest by a Minneapolis police officer.

Twenty years later Charlie Kirk was born on the same October day. The nation is still coming to terms with his assassination while speaking to students on the Utah Valley University campus two weeks ago.

Floyd’s death was the result of a tragic mistake; officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, but on the basis that he killed Floyd unintentionally. Kirk was struck down by an assassin with an explicitly political motive.

Floyd was unknown to the world until his death, while the 31-year-old Kirk had founded and built one of the most powerful organizations in the country, not to mention been the confidant of a president.

Both deaths were not just tragedies, they had profound political and social aftershocks that have shaped the national psyche.

And as the anniversary of their birth approaches, how that day is marked by their respective followers will reveal how close to boiling point America really is.

The House and Senate have passed a resolution deeming October 14 of this year a National Day of Remembrance for Kirk, an inoffensive measure aimed merely at encouraging the country “to observe this day with appropriate programs, activities, prayers, and ceremonies that promote civic engagement and the principles of faith, liberty, and democracy that Charlie Kirk championed.”

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was among the 22 Democrats to walk out of the House chamber during the vote.

That act marked a stark contrast from June 2020, when Pelosi and her colleagues – dressed up in performative Kente cloth stoles – knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds – the time Floyd was pinned under a cop’s knee for – in the Capitol Building’s Emancipation Hall to honor Floyd.

“We’re here to observe that pain,” declared Pelosi. “We’re here to respect the actions of the American people to speak out against that.”

There was, of course, much pain to observe. Floyd’s death kicked off a summer of divisive disorder that yielded pain, destruction, and still more death.

In the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul alone, more than 1,500 businesses were damaged and well over $500 million in property destruction was wrought in violent riots in the days after his killing. Five years later, businesses are still struggling.

“Even the guy that, you know, helped George Floyd, helped the guy get convicted for the murder. He had a black Chinese spot. He had to move out because he couldn’t afford it, you know. He wasn’t generating any income,” one resident noted.

By the fall of 2020, the Insurance Information Institute was projecting that across only 20 states, $1 to $2 billion in paid insurance claims were forthcoming.

The losses were more than pecuniary. It was reported that 17 people had died “in incidents stemming from the unrest following Floyd’s May 25 death.” Among those killed was David Dorn, a 77-year-old, retired black police officer who was shot and killed after responding to a break-in at his friend’s pawn shop in St. Louis.

Contrast this carnage with the reaction to Kirk’s planned murder on the basis of his widely-held beliefs – a murder that was openly celebrated by the far-left, and lied about in the mainstream press.

Where are the riots? Where’s the violence and recriminations? What about the vandalism and economic ruin? Has there even been a discernible amount of bitterness?

Certainly not from Erika Kirk, the widow of the fallen and heir to his organization.

“That man, that young man, I forgive him,” declared Kirk before a roaring stadium at her husband’s memorial last Sunday. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do.”

“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know, from the Gospel, is love and always love,” she added.

Good people lamented the deaths of both George Floyd and Charlie Kirk, and bad actors tried to take advantage of both tragedies.

But how October 14 is marked will show whether the left has learned lessons from its last self-righteous moral panic – and likely demonstrate that the country is not yet done excusing the indefensible, both then and now.