Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman--a charitable, tragic reading
It saddens me that all of the various baggage of race, politics, etc. have permeated this case so thoroughly. So I'd like to just give a sad reading to everything:
A young man is dead. Shot for whatever reason, but certainly not a reason, no matter the evidence, that would warrant his life being taken. His mother and father and friends must be experiencing such loss.
The man who shot him: whatever problems he had, whatever "cop-mentality," whatever prejudices he had when seeing a young black teen in a hoodie, I have little doubt that the fact of killing a man is very hard on him. He will bear the responsibility for taking another man's life.
Let us not impute the worst of intentions onto either man. Whatever evidence surfaces, I have little doubt about the tragedy of that night. I doubt very much Mr. Zimmerman is a hostile racist or that he desired to shoot Mr. Martin because Mr. martin was black. I imagine he wanted to "serve and protect," but Mr. Zimmerman was a weak man, with weak thoughts, was scared, and killed a man for no reason.
Mr. Martin, even if all of the various stories are coming out are true, even if he was high and paranoid and confronted Mr. Zimmerman, did not deserve to be shot. Hell, he didn't deserve to be stopped. But he was, and my post isn't about right or wrong. It's simply about the suffering involved. Mr. Martin is dead, for no reason; his parents have to deal with that. Mr. Zimmerman has to deal with the fact that he's killed a man for no reason. Think about that charitably. Think about Mr. Zimmerman's conscience at this point (for only he knows the real truth of all of this). Do I want to make him a victim? No, of course not. But I imagine he suffers from what he's done. If he's criminally liable so be it. But even then, and even if he's acquitted, he'll still suffer, because he took the life of an innocent man. And perhaps he had good reason( i.e., acquitted by the law)--but he'll still suffer because he knows Trayvon was ultimately innocent.
Let justice run its course. But justice won't undo the tragedy of this mess. Justice doesn't undo the past. Only fools think does. Even if Mr. Zimmerman is convicted (or even put to death--God, I hope not), Mr. Martin is still dead, Mr. Zimmerman still killed a man, and two sets of parents have lost their children. This is a tragedy. There is no undoing it (hence the very definition of tragedy). All of the calls for justice here will not undo anything.
It's just sad.
And I'm probably wrong about all of this.
= new reply since forum marked as read
of black friends.
Whereas in reality his father was a judge and his mother was Peruvian (hardly a nationality most of us think of when we hear the word "Latino"
. (And why does that statement make think that his father smelled of elderberries and his mother was a hamster?).
Anyway, I have no knowledge of Zimmerman's racist tendencies or lack of same, although the reference to "fucking coons" could possibly be a clue. I think he panicked and shot the kid because he was scared shitless, and his father pulled some strings to make the cops back off.
I also think it will be very difficult to keep the lid on all of this and that there are so many people involved in the cover up that eventually someone is going to blab. And if Zimmerman is tried and convicted of this crime, and sentenced to prison, it will in effect be a death sentence unless he is kept in isolation. Even if he walks, he is going to be one scared sumbitch for the rest of his miserable fucking life.
