To the editor:

Recently, there have been some letters in the Phoenix suggesting that Charlie Kirk was simply exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, and even going so far as to claiming that he was a symbol of faith who was merely trying to engage people in dialog. Therefore, I wanted to share some of Charlie Kirk's quotes, in case anyone was unfamiliar with them.

“I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up, new age term, and it does a lot of damage."

 “If I see a black pilot, I'm gonna be like 'boy, I hope he's qualified."

“Black women do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to be taken somewhat seriously."

“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s."

“It's funny. I used to say that 'hey, if you as a gay person were to go to Gaza, they'd throw you off a tall building, right? Now, they don't have any tall buildings left, so I don't... Is that too soon? I'm sorry. Maybe you shouldn't kill Jews, stupid Muslims."

And when asked if his daughter were assaulted and became pregnant at 10yrs old, would he make her have the baby? "The answer is yes, the baby would be delivered."

Opposing opinions should always be welcomed. That's how we learn and grow and become better people. But let's be clear: Bigotry and racism are NOT opinions. As a lifelong Bristolian, I'm sure that my neighbors would agree that hatred has no place in our town.

David Bailey
Bristol