Calm Down

Alright so once again everyone is loosing their mind over the Zimmerman trail and stop it.  Stop it.


Everyone wants to use this trail as a litmus test on American race relations and at the end of the day I feel it is stupid stupid idea. Here is why.

5.  NBC's Race Baiting

Every now and again I'll say something expressing my ire towards Al Sharpton. And this is why. It's vague if it was intentional but NBC edited the 911 call making it look as though Zimmerman brought up Martin's race unsolicited when actually the dispatcher asked about his race while trying to get a physical description. That first reporting especially Al Sharpton's soap boxing on the matter really stoked the fires based on at best an error and at worst a lie.

The first rule of journalism is if you don't know don't guess and boy did everyone guess. I'm not saying that race did not have a component in what happened but to determine that would require mind reading and Al Sharpton you are not clairvoyant.

4. Stand Your Ground
You know what kills people. Guns kill people. For a brief second between all the race stuff and the current media frenzy there was talk about changing Stand Your Ground Laws that allowed Zimmerman not to be arrested.  (Michigan has one.)

You know with all the talk of gun law reform you would think that would be an aspect of the case that would stay fresh in folks minds.



3. Rule of Law
You know what it kind of pisses me off a little how politicized this case has gotten. We are or at least I hope we are not a country lead by mob rule. People should not be put in jail or tried out of fear of the poltics. There was a legal reason why Zimmerman was not arrested originally and it had nothing to do with race. The authorities were following the law in not arresting him. They legally couldn't.

2. It Changes Nothing

Okay. lets say everyone is right. This trial is a litmus test for how racist the United States is. After it ends guess what. Nothing changes. People who have an unconscious paranoia of Black folks will still have an unconscious paranoia of Black Folks, and because the focus has been taken off of the stupid law that allowed Zimmerman to not be arrested in the first place, nothing will have changed.

1. It Changes Nothing
You know what? For the family and those that have a personal stake in the case I get it. Thier kid died and to them something should happen as a result. But for everyone else, Trayvon Martin will still be dead regardless of the outcome of the trail. A tragedy occurred, but rather than trying to figure out why, we all want to blame one man so we can go home feeling happy that at least that monster paid. But life isn't that simple. Today, tomorrow maybe next year some other kid is going to get shot,  and will we weep over him? No. Because it isn't Martin's death or even the possibility of another's that matters, but the thrill of our own petty conviction.

It's the story that matters not the truth.  It's the pathos we tune into, the perverted glee of the tragedy. And that would be all fine and well if this were a play written for our entertainment, but it's not. This is real life, and bad things happen.