I find my grandson, eager to learn about his world, watching TV in the time of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman
Friday, July 19, 2013 at 5:56PM 
I continue my Instagram/blogging experiment. I am out walking – walking and thinking, talking into my iPhone so it can take down my words without me typing anything.
Just a little bit ago, I stepped out of my office and into the living room where I found Lynx sitting in my recliner, the control in his hand, intently watching the TV.
This is what he was watching: his president, talking in the wake of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman tragedy and travesty. The man up in the corner is Ari Fleischer, former spokesman for President George W. Bush. Fleischer is harshly criticizing the president for having said what he said. I am glad the president said what he said. This issue needs to be kept alive before the public.
It has been greatly troubling me to know that a youth could be walking peacefully down the street, returning to his family carrying Skittles and a soft drink, be profiled because he is black and wearing a hoodie and then be stalked by a man with a gun and that man can initiate a confrontation and shoot to death the young man who, at the very worst, was trying to defend himself from this scary adult stalking him and then the stalker with the gun can be acquitted of all charges. Nothing can ever bring Trayvon Martin back, but this discussion needs to happen.
I try to keep this blog out of politics, but some things are bigger than politics. This is. I can't just keep quiet about it. My grandson is not black, but he is Native American, people who have also been known to be profiled. I am sure there are those who will seek to profile him in the future. No, I cannot be quiet about it. Even If I had married a white woman, and my son had married a white woman, and my grandson was all white, instead of just the one quarter that comes from me, I would still need to speak up about it.
I own guns and I do not want anyone to infringe upon my right to do so. Society should be able to honor and respect the Second Amendment, in the spirit it was written, without being compelled to pass laws that encourage a trigger-happy man to initiate conflict and then to shoot dead the one he has caused to fear him and to believe he must defend himself against. A sane and rational society does not pass such laws.
Although I am doing this in the lunch hour, I'm not going to activate this post until later, so as to give regular readers who will come in at different times of the day a chance to read last night's post and to learn about the Instagram experiment I am conducting.
The photos in this post were taken with my iPhone, processed in Instagram.
George Zimmerman, Lynx, Lynxton, President Obama, Trayvon Martin in Death, Family, Instagram, Wasilla, crime, race
Reader Comments (5)
I pray your precious grandsons never have to have a confrontation like this. Or your sons either. We have some very sick people in this nation. Thank you for speaking up!
I agree completely. As a mother, I too will not be silent about this horrible injustice. When we act out of fear, we can make terrible choices.
You are right to speak out against this travesty...it also angered me a great deal. It offends me greatly about how certain people in this country are trying to drag us back as a whole...the hate and control over others is appalling.
Thank you for your post. I agree wholeheartedly. All of the "Stand Your Ground" laws are founded on racism and on the baseless fear that some people (think ALEC) want to engender and codify. These are all bad laws, no matter what state they have been enacted in.
I found President Obama's words, and Eric Holder's too, to be profoundly moving and important to all Americans but especially to those of us who are not African American or part of any other minority group. We need to hear the truth and we need to think about it. There was absolutely no reason in the world for George Zimmerman to have stalked and killed Trayvon Martin other than his racism and sick irrational anger. What happened in Florida when the boy was killed was a tragedy; what happened in Florida at the time of the jury verdict was a travesty of justice.
Thank you for speaking up about this, Bill. It's something we begin to think about even more strongly as we have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We want them each to live in a better, safer and more respect-full environment.