Neighbor turned on neighbor after Charlie Kirk’s killing. Is the divide here to stay?

People walk in front of a memorial for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 29, 2025. Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Jim Urquhart/Reuters

A week into fall semester at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, the campus’s grassy, terraced courtyard bakes under the heat of full late August sunlight. The sound of trickling water from a fountain that meanders through the space beckons students to stop, chat and unwind. But