I decided I was going to be positive today. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that’s it. I’m done with being positive. It was a solid effort, though.
I have to be honest. This whole Zimmerman thing has bugged me. It has bugged me from the start. I wrote about it clear back in April of 2012. I ended that brilliantly written article with this:
So there is no mistake, I’m not saying George Zimmerman is innocent…He could be guilty as sin. He may have been hoping and waiting for the opportunity to kill someone. I don’t know. That is why we have due process. Not the court of public opinion. Too many people have interjected themselves into this mess. The New Black Panthers put a [ten thousand] dollar bounty on Zimmerman. Spike Lee tweeted what he thought was Zimmerman’s address to his followers, and now Mike Tyson is saying it’s a disgrace Zimmerman hasn’t been shot yet.
Guilty or innocent Zimmerman’s life will never be the same. Either way he deserves his day in court.
So now, over a year later, he has had his day in court. They skipped the grand jury, went for a trial, where a jury of his peers found him not guilty of the charges. I’m half tempted, but I’m not going to, rehash the evidence of the trial for two reasons: 1) I didn’t watch one minute of the trial, and 2) it doesn’t matter.
What really gets my goat (other than goat thieves, obviously) is that this whole trial is the product of manufactured outrage. It’s all fake. Yes, Trayvon was killed. That’s real, I get that, and it’s a tragedy. The outrage is fake. It’s a screaming example of how the media is willing to portray us, as a nation, as a bunch of red-necked Klansmen, and, when there isn’t any real racism, they are more than willing to make some up.
In Chicago, over the 4th of July weekend, there were 72 people similarly killed. I’m willing to bet you don’t know anything about the racial makeup of either the perpetrators or the victims in those killings. I don’t. Why? It’s easy. None of those cases are being held up as the symbolic return to lynch mob justice the way the Zimmerman trial has been.
The real outrage should be that the number one cause of death to black teenagers is homicide, almost exclusively from other black teenagers.
What really bothers me is the public’s reaction to the verdict.
Those who are outraged by the verdict have decided that those who are not outraged are racist. Period. End of discussion.
I have a problem with that.
I believe in the justice system. When I look at this case rationally, dispassionately and legally, I think the jury made the correct decision, based on their understanding of Florida law and the fact they sat through the whole trial and heard all the evidence. That doesn’t make this case any less of a tragedy; it doesn’t elevate George Zimmerman to hero status; and it CERTAINLY doesn’t make me a de facto racist.
Zimmerman made some mistakes and a young man died. He could have stayed in his vehicle, and he could have left his gun at home. He didn’t. This verdict isn’t an example of the triumph of good vs. evil. There shouldn’t be joy here. It just is.
In my little brain this is 100% the media’s fault. Why did they choose to shine a spotlight on this one case out of the thousands they could have? Could it be because they hoped to deepen the racial divide and increase the hate? I think so. They should be held responsible for any negative outcome due to the results of the case.
In my humble opinion, because NBC initially edited the tape of the 9-1-1 call to make Zimmerman sound like a racist, thus starting this whole mess, they (NBC) should, at a minimum, be held liable for any damage to personal or public propriety resulting from any riots or protests, and should probably be prosecuted for incitement.
LIFEZILLA: No, I’m not cynical. I’m even worse. I’m realistic.
