I taught Trayvon.....

[Are_grits_groceries]

I taught kids Trayvon's age. Some of them appear to be like him from what I have read.

He apparently had some problems at school. So? Few don't. Tardies and marijuana residue do not a felon make. They are pretty standard as problems go.

Nothing I have seen indicates he was more or less than a teenager grappling with the problems that come with that age. He also had to deal with the stereotypes people have about minoritie.

Some fool just posted items from Trayvon's FB page. Gold teeth, tattoos, gang sign by a friend.....So? Kids posture all the time and relate in different ways to their friends than they do to others. Just because I may or not relate in such terms doesn't mean they are sinister.

The kids I taught could appear to be a lot of things. You had to get past the walls and assumptions to reveal more of the true self. I had several who looked like they might stomp you at any moment. They were really some of the funniest and kindest kids I knew.

If you assume the worst, every action might be seen as a threat. Those assumptions become a muddy window that you look through. You have to clean the window of your ideas and the crap they toss to disguise who they really are.

Put down the guns. Clean the windows. Try to find out who people really are. I know too many kids who could be shot by not acting like some think they should. We are all human and that should be enough as a starting point.

[WingDinger]

1. Bottom line is, desecrating the corpse for political mileage will backfire.

Making him a breakfast club smartypants, will only humanize Trayvon. And the transparent smear, will enrage parents. There are a lot of those.

Rethugs, what with boosting hunting teen, and cattle prodding women, is aiming to loose bad, or has the fix in.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. During my teaching career

I had students with Mohawks, multiple piercings, elaborate tattoos, and a general "shock the middle class" appearance.

I soon learned that they were less likely to be troublesome in class than some the students who looked as if they had stepped out of the pages of Seventeen.

Look CAN be deceiving.

[JDPriestly]

3. Trayvon's conduct or character are irrelevant.

Zimmerman did not kill Trayvon because of what Trayvon or his friends put on their Facebook pages. Zimmerman killed Trayvon because Trayvon was black, wore a hoodie and therefore, Zimmerman was scared of him and did not like him. Zimmerman shot because he got a feeling of power from shooting at someone who was unarmed.

Zimmerman was under the control of his animal instinct at the time of the shooting -- his instinct to protect his territory.

The law needs to be changed. That law cannot work.

It permits the truly guilty to pretend to be the victim and get away with murder, and it makes of any unfortunate person who is walking in the dark in the vicinity of a killer a potential victim.

The law was incredibly stupid from the get-go and should be repealed immediately.