PARSIPPANY - They came with candles, some with signs and one man with a flag to grieve for Charlie Kirk, but also to make sure the movement he began continues.

This was twilight in Morris County's largest town on Friday night. The vigil for Kirk, who was killed Wednesday while speaking in Utah, was obviously hastily arranged, but about 400 people assembled on a ballfield in the county's Central Park.

One of the organizers, Justin Musella, a local councilman, suggested Kirk's influence with younger millennials and Gen Z cannot be overestimated.

He said Kirk used "new media" to relate to younger people and brought his ideas right to them - to college campuses.
"Nobody was doing that," Musella said.

Of course, this was not merely a class on current events. Musella said that in a mostly liberal environment, Kirk said it was OK for students to have conservative views.

In other words, he made them feel comfortable.

"100 percent, 100 percent," Musella said.

Joe Hathaway, the mayor of Randolph, and like Musella, a millennial, called Kirk's shooting a "truly dark day."

Still, the mayor was looking ahead. In fact, he challenged Gen. Z, Kirk's most ardent supporters, thusly:

“Your generation is going to have to take up that mantle."

Adding that if times get tough, press ahead. And don't just "fall into the trap" of stomping your feet and going home.

Kirk, more broadly, was spoken about as a political martyr in the mold of Martin Luther King Jr, JFK and RFK.

The vigil ended with an impromptu singing of God Bless America.

Kirk, like all political figures, received a fair degree of criticism. It goes with the territory.

On this evening, however, the mood was that we must strive to be a nation where disagreement doesn't lead to violence.

The name of Robert F. Kennedy was mentioned during the vigil. So it is appropriate here to bring up a famous speech he gave in 1968 after the assassination of King. That was two months before he would be killed himself.

Here is a line from that speech that is as true today as it was in 1968.

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black."[