Since the Zimmerman verdict, the thing that has been said that I most agree with is that there are two realities in play here. The one juror who has spoken has made it clear that in her reality, 'George' is a sympathetic character and Trayvon was not.
That is a reality I do not share. Everything I know about Mr. Zimmerman is that he was angry, prejudiced and ready for violence. Everything I know about Trayvon is that he liked tea, smoked pot sometimes and was walking home minding his own business.
Zimmerman assumed he didn't belong there (prejudice), blamed him in his mind for doing something wrong and went out to accost him against the explicit advice of the police. What is sympathetic about that??????????
No clear story of what happened has emerged. Witnesses differ, Zimmerman's story is inconsistent and there was no recording of the encounter. Perhaps the jury thought there was reasonable doubt.
But for me, the crucial fact was that Zimmerman left his truck and followed a young man simply walking home. Everything that happened after that is on his head because of that. Even if Trayvon confronted him, even if he got violent, none of that would have happened if he had taken the police's advice as he should have.
And can we really think that Zimmerman didn't contribute his own share to the conflict, whatever it was? After he spoke the way he did on the tape, after he disregarded the police, after he went out with a gun? Does anyone think he spoke to Trayvon calmly and rationally, asking him if he had a good reason to be there?
Very doubtful.
Worst case is that two hostile people met and one ended up dead. Which wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in his truck.
His unwarranted actions ended in a death. He is guilty.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
The America Dream
These days it seems everyone is either an unquestioning 'patriot' or a jaded cynic about America and its history - even in other countries.
You either think America is the greatest country on earth or a hypocritical fraud.
It seems to me the most radical position one can take is that it is neither - and both.
The truth is there IS greatness in America. When it was founded, it was revolutionary in a spiritual sense and not just a political one. There was a spirit of noble rebellion throughout the developed world of the time, a real leap in mankind's progress. And America was the perfect place to put these new theories to the test. If one was a believer, one could make a case that America was founded and created just for that test. Men created equal? Government answering to the people? These WERE radical ideas then.
And then and now, they were hard ideas to live up to. So we failed over and over. But that same country that was genocidal to the natives and brutal to the Africans WAS a beacon to many huddled masses all around the world. Land was taken from the natives, but given to many who never would have had a chance at it back home.
One could also make a case that possibly there would have been more revolutions and more progress overall if those masses HADN'T had the escape valve of America. Would the world be better off that way?
Too late now.
But many of those countries have now accepted the same ideas and in their own ways have instituted them. In some ways those countries have even passed us, so the claim that we are the greatest is dubious. But our founders would have LOVED that. Replication of our experiment would have been their fondest hope.
Bottom line is that America's promise is truly wonderful and it floats above and ahead of us forever. It isn't perfect, it may or may not be the best country on earth, but how good it is in the end is up to all of us. Neither unquestioning patriotism or cynical defeatism will help in that effort. We need to see what is wrong and believe it can be better. Then act on that.
You either think America is the greatest country on earth or a hypocritical fraud.
It seems to me the most radical position one can take is that it is neither - and both.
The truth is there IS greatness in America. When it was founded, it was revolutionary in a spiritual sense and not just a political one. There was a spirit of noble rebellion throughout the developed world of the time, a real leap in mankind's progress. And America was the perfect place to put these new theories to the test. If one was a believer, one could make a case that America was founded and created just for that test. Men created equal? Government answering to the people? These WERE radical ideas then.
And then and now, they were hard ideas to live up to. So we failed over and over. But that same country that was genocidal to the natives and brutal to the Africans WAS a beacon to many huddled masses all around the world. Land was taken from the natives, but given to many who never would have had a chance at it back home.
One could also make a case that possibly there would have been more revolutions and more progress overall if those masses HADN'T had the escape valve of America. Would the world be better off that way?
Too late now.
But many of those countries have now accepted the same ideas and in their own ways have instituted them. In some ways those countries have even passed us, so the claim that we are the greatest is dubious. But our founders would have LOVED that. Replication of our experiment would have been their fondest hope.
Bottom line is that America's promise is truly wonderful and it floats above and ahead of us forever. It isn't perfect, it may or may not be the best country on earth, but how good it is in the end is up to all of us. Neither unquestioning patriotism or cynical defeatism will help in that effort. We need to see what is wrong and believe it can be better. Then act on that.
Monday, July 1, 2013
What's next?
Time was summer was slow and relaxing, but this one has started off with not one, but several bangs.
The U.S. has taken some steps forward and some steps back on civil rights, thanks to the SCOTUS, the do nothing congress is actually making progress on a big issue, a real shocker, the people are rising up all over the world - Turkey, Brazil, Texas, and now Egypt, as governments forget that there are people out there who care about what they do and may not like it, and more and stronger evidence of climate change is in our faces every day.
It's hard to say who's coming out ahead in all this, but I do believe in the arc of history tending towards justice, so I'm hopeful overall.
But heat and humidity not withstanding, the struggle continues.
Stay tuned.
The U.S. has taken some steps forward and some steps back on civil rights, thanks to the SCOTUS, the do nothing congress is actually making progress on a big issue, a real shocker, the people are rising up all over the world - Turkey, Brazil, Texas, and now Egypt, as governments forget that there are people out there who care about what they do and may not like it, and more and stronger evidence of climate change is in our faces every day.
It's hard to say who's coming out ahead in all this, but I do believe in the arc of history tending towards justice, so I'm hopeful overall.
But heat and humidity not withstanding, the struggle continues.
Stay tuned.
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