At the Howard County government complex on Saturday, I raised the half-staff American flag to full staff — a simple act of civil disobedience rejecting public honors for Charlie Kirk. While I condemn his killing, as a person elected to govern, I cannot accept official honor for someone who devoted his life to harming those I serve and rending the democratic fabric that binds us.

Growing up in a military family, I understood not following an unlawful order. Federal law reserves half-staff honors for government officials, foreign dignitaries and first responders killed in the line of duty. Occasionally, the honor has followed school shootings, like at Uvalde, Texas, where 21 were massacred. That was much on my mind picking up my high schooler below flags lowered for someone who said, “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”

Kirk was not only a gun violence apologist but extolled unvarnished racism and misogyny, while slyly undermining democratic values. He called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “huge mistake” and “an anti-white weapon.” He diminished accomplished Black women in government as “affirmative action picks” lacking “brain processing power.”

His views on women weren’t just regressive — they were cruel. Asked about abortion in cases of rape, including a hypothetical 10-year-old girl, Kirk didn’t hesitate: “The baby would be delivered.”

Need more? Kirk promoted the antisemitic “great replacement theory.” He said gender-affirming physicians deserve “Nuremberg-style” trials. But hear him out: “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that — it does a lot of damage.”

A bright line separates respecting Kirk’s family’s and followers’ right to grieve from using government power to praise someone who sought to hurt vulnerable people and undermine our democratic system.

Today we must ask ourselves: What do we choose to honor? When I hoisted the flag, I honored the Americans Kirk spent his life denigrating and the values we want our children to embrace. Congressman John Lewis famously called such acts “good trouble.” Sometimes defending our values calls for just that.

Liz Walsh is the chair of the Howard County Council and represents District 1.

The Baltimore Banner publishes letters to the editor, exclusive to our publication, of no more than 350 words. Letters can be submitted for consideration to letters@thebaltimorebanner.com.