The Second Post

I’ve always held a very strict rule about not posting a status on Facebook about politics or religion.  I just don’t want to offer open forums for status wars between people that I may know (but who know nothing about one other) other than that they have me as a common denominator. 

Unfortunately, I broke that rule yesterday. Not on purpose, mind you, but rather because I thought it was more of a hapless observation, not an official stance. Regardless of what I thought would happen, it ended up starting just what I always wanted to avoid.  Here is what I posted:

Not totally understanding how Kim Kardashian gets 'floured' and the perp gets arrested, but Trayvon Martin is shot to death, unarmed, and that guy walks free. Laws definitely need to be reviewed and updated.

I posted it without really thinking through the implications. And that is much of the problem with Facebook and Twitter…once it’s posted, you can’t take it back. You can delete, but you can’t cancel the fact that you once voiced an opinion, or started a war of words, or confirmed yourself a reality TV watcher. It lives in cyberspace for eternity. And let’s face it, the fact that I know who Trayvon Martin is, is a travesty all its own.  But so is the fact that I know Kim Kardashian’s name. So I digress.

There are so many things that are odd about this Trayvon Martin case.  Some people are choosing to make it about race (judging from grand jury leaks, it looks like it could actually be more racial than initially suspected); And some are making it about guns (also, in the end, there could be something said about the fact that the shooter admittedly shot and killed another human being and was handed his gun back the same night), but both those supporting the NRA and those for stricter gun laws are raging just the same; And finally some are making it about changing the controversial Stand-Your-Ground laws, which, in my humble opinion, need to be thoroughly reviewed and revised  by individual states ASAP. 

There is no denying that this case is one very tragic event. One that seems to be shaking itself out behind the closed doors of a grand jury. One that involves a man, who may, or may not have had a history of harassing Trayvon on multiple occasions. One that I’m sure, in its conclusion, is much more in-depth and possibly more heartbreaking than the initial presumption of this just being a story about a black teenager randomly walking down the street with his hoodie up, and being killed by a local member of a neighborhood watch group, who happened to be Hispanic.

In the end though, I hope it does bring awareness about the fact that kids are dying every single day. Before I moved to my current home three months ago, I happened to live in an area of the city where I would often hear people guns fired at all hours of the day and night. The bullets could end up through random windows, hit kids reading bedtime stories with their parents or take down people minding their own business walking down the street. This is NOT about the people that follow the gun laws; it is about those that do not.  Two weeks ago, over one weekend in Chicago, 49 people were wounded, 10 were killed. This is my city and this is sad. ( Chicago Tribune Article)

And although my instincts tell me the Trayvon Martin case will end up being very much about racism, I think our big problem shouldn’t be about race, but more about the economics of race. When you talk about economic status and race, it gets pretty touchy. But can we be real? We can’t end a cycle of violence without a reality check of epic proportions. Additionally, let’s not be naïve and say this doesn’t have to do with providing a good education both inside and outside the home as well. Everything goes hand-in-hand.We need better schools, better mentors, better after school programs...we all need to do better.

How is it we can sit back and watch these kids shoot each other? How is it I sat in my home for six years letting my children watch Dora The Explorer on a nice comfy couch, while just outside my doors there were other kids that were the same age learning to hold guns? How was I OK with this? I’ve had the pleasure of working with teens for nine years now, and I’ll tell you, teenagers are amazing. They have such energy, hope, drive, and most importantly they are resilient as hell. The question is, how can we channel that for good? For every kid with a good home, good education, and a good mentor, there must be ten without those necessities. It’s something we should all be ashamed of and we should all be thinking about how we can fix it.

Every story has a back-story, and the Trayvon Martin incident is no exception. Rest assured, there is much more to come, and I’m as interested as the next person in understanding why that child had to be murdered.  Maybe Trayvon’s death will change laws or opinions about guns? Maybe his death will make people aware, once again, that racism continues to be alive and thriving in all corners of this country? But come on Facebook Friends, let’s not let Trayvon Martin’s death go in vain please. Can we at least ‘like’ that?