Today's topic Was it Racial?  I don't know.  I see people all over, black, white talking about if it is racial.  Our President said if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.  I think he might.  Their bone structure is similar.  I don't know if it was racial.  My understanding is Zimmerman is mixed race.  That doesn't really matter though. 

It isn't easy for me to say I don't know.   I am not surprised at all the anger and even death threats toward Zimmerman. The Black Panther's have a 10,000 dollar reward for Zimmerman's capture.   I will take a page from a C L Bryant, a black pastor, who wrote an article about this, and ask where is the outrage about a six year old girl, who was killed in the cross fire between gang members in Chicago?  That didn't make the national news. The perception, whether right or wrong, that this was racially motivated gets more attention than a six year killed on her front steps. So, perhaps there is some racial motivation.  If  Zimmerman was black maybe this wouldn't have made the news either because we don't care enough, as a nation, about our black youth to report the stories.

I mean this in a good way.  In a broad sense, I don't care if it was racial.  To me that isn't the biggest issue.  The biggest issue to me is that a man felt he had the right to pursue a young kid, who was minding his own business.  There was no cause, the kid had done nothing but be there.  A guy decides he is above the law, goes against what the emergency dispatcher advises and a child is killed, murdered, in my opinion.  I don't care what color anyone one was.  This guy clearly had an agenda.  He is the captain of his neighbourhood watch, which rules he didn't follow.  He felt he had the right to scare the kid so badly that when confronted, in my opinion, the kid felt he had to fight for his life.  How sad, tragic and horrible that he was right and that he lost. 

There have been stories about both of these two.  Stories showing Trayvon being a kid.  So what if he Tweeted crap.  He was a teenager. I don't expect that he was perfect.  So, what if he was suspended.  He was the child, he was the victim.  He didn't make the choice to leave the safety of his home to chase after someone.  He just went to the convenience store to get Skittles.

There are stories of Zimmerman, calling 911 over 40 times, having racially diverse friends, a failed attempt at working in law enforcement. Some seem to think that if he called 911 so often and didn't have trouble in the past why now?  I don't care how many times he called with no reported problems.  It could it be he finally lost all faith in the police and decided to do something himself.  Or he was compensating for a deep feeling of inadequacy.

The question of race exist though and I understand.  Was Zimmerman motivated more by the color of Trayvon's skin than he would have been a Latino, or Caucasian.  I don't know.  I wish I did.  Then I could say "Yes, this is a hate crime!" or "No, the guy is just a vigilante."

 I don't know if I like the assumption that racial motivation somehow makes it worse.  How can the skin color make it worse?  Someone minding their own business, being stalked and feeling the need to fight for their life and then murdered isn't enough?  

I think the Florida law of Stand Your Ground doesn't apply here.  The guy left his ground to follow a kid.  He wouldn't have had to stand any ground at all if he kept his butt in the house or at most in his car following at a safe distance to ensure the kid didn't get into mischief.   He didn't see anything, he just felt the kid looked suspicious.  All the more reason to wait for the police. 

I am reminded that we don't have all the facts, that is true more facts may come out.  Unfortunately, only two people know what really happened, had all the facts and one of them is dead.  So, no matter how many facts come to light I don't know that we will ever know the truth.