LET ME SAY THIS

Let me say this: 

I resent (right word) people changing the words of what most (I get this does not apply to all) people are calling for regarding the Zimmerman trial and the killing of Trayvon Martin. We weren't in the jury room, true. But we do not believe justice was served. We want justice--not vengeance. To say that Zimmerman "profiled" Trayvon, but it wasn't a "racial profiling" is an insult to our ability to process information. The police on the scene did the same profiling, never doing due diligence with the scene, not once considering it a possible crime scene and so the evidence was corrupted. And Trayvon was in the Sanford morgue as a "John Doe." They had his CELL PHONE. He could have been identified in minutes. His father didn't report him missing until the next morning because he thought Trayvon had gone to the movie with his older cousin. Dad just went to bed, thinking he'd get in late. The next morning, he reported it. When the police arrived, they showed him a picture of his dead son.

It is true that GZ is a pariah in public opinion and his life will never been the same. It is not cruel for me to say that no one's life should ever be the same if they kill someone, even if I believed it were self-defense (which I don't), even if it were war. Taking a life should change you. And mercy for his family because of course their lives are changed as well. But while I can feel the sympathy for them, GZ is still alive. Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, and Trayvon's brothers will never hug, talk with, play with their son and brother and friend again. I just think that requires a bit more sympathy than Juror B37 seems to think. And no, I'm not "letting this thing go" for a while. I know that there are other issues and other people wrongly treated. Trayvon's case just coalesced the anxiety, angst, dread, trauma that is always just below the skin in this racist culture. You can de-friend me if my black mama trauma is making you uncomfortable. Go ahead. Please. Do.

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 17, 2013

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