It’s hard to know how to talk about the tragedies that occurred in Utah and Colorado this week, after observing the way the discourse has devolved in many circles. Perhaps adding to the chatter will make no difference, but it feels important to say a few things:

No one — NO ONE — deserves to die for speaking their opinions and sharing their perspective, no matter how much others might disagree with that person. Further, gleefully trying to draw connections between that person’s political goals and the manner in which he was killed is truly reprehensible.

We’ve devolved into a society in which we scream for freedom to express our views at the same time we cheer violence against those who are expressing their own. Social media echo chambers in which it is incredibly easy to hear only those voices that encourage our own nastiness have made too many people feel comfortable demanding peace and protection for their own sake and applauding horrific violence against those with whom they disagree.

It’s fair to understand we should be viewing both the assassination of Charlie Kirk AND yet another school shooting in Colorado at so close to the same time with horror, grief — and determination to stop the violence.

Those who disagreed with Kirk’s views and goals can still behave with a little humanity when considering he was a husband and father to two daughters who are now in unimaginable pain.

Just as those who agreed with him and had been cheering him on must understand that most reasonable people do condemn his murder; and that even those who hold different viewpoints from Kirk are not now “the enemy.”

At the same time, those in anguish (and feeling fearful) in the wake of two students injured before the shooter took his own life at Evergreen High School can express the need for reform and healing without pointing fingers at one voice among many from what THEY should try not to think of as “the enemy.”

The echo chambers, the division, the extremism, the failure to remember we are all humans who need to do a better job taking care of one another whether we agree or not … it’s overwhelming. What happened Wednesday — all of it — must force us to have difficult conversations about mental health, social media, gun regulations, compassion and empathy. And we must do some honest self-examination on all those fronts.

Each of us has got to ask: Am I part of the problem? Am I operating under double standards?

For those who say they are people of faith: Are we behaving and speaking in a way that reflects the way those faiths teach us to interact with one another?

I’ll say this: If stoking the fires on social media and trolling those with whom you disagree just to see how extreme you can make the discourse is a guilty pleasure of yours, please stop. If whataboutism is your favorite tactic, please stop. If you’re thinking of friends, colleagues, organizations or political parties with whom you might score some sleazy points by posting something smarmy and awful, please don’t.

Honestly, right now, if you can’t say anything compassionate or constructive, don’t say anything for a bit.

Enough is enough. If we’re having trouble recognizing how we got here, then that’s a fantastic place to start the conversation — without playing the blame game. But the next steps have got to be moving toward change.

No one deserves what happened Wednesday. It’s time now for us to show we care about making sure it doesn’t happen again.