I have not made up my mind whether the killing of Trayvon Martin was self-defense or murder. There are not enough established facts for me to decide beyond a reasonable doubt. At this point, I am willing to embrace either that George Zimmerman felt threatened of imminent harm from Martin to warrant defending himself with tragic results or that zimmermann is a barney Fife vigilante who ought to be punished for his crime. I remain in wait and see mode. More precisely, I remain in wait and see mode for what little interest I have in the matter.
Do not get me wrong. No matter the truth, Trayvon’s killing is a tragedy. A young man, troubled or completely innocent, has been killed, and Zimmerman has to live with the consequences. Whether those consequences are guilt over the necessity of defending himself or the stigma of not caring about the consequences of his actions, whichever the case may be. But I have to pur things in perspective. This incident is not a national news story. It is being exploited all around by various groups with agendas, and I hate playing into it.
The sort of altercation between Zimmerman and martin happens all the time, everywhere. Rarely will a few days go by when I do not hear that some young black guy has killed another over an alleged “dissing” or some drunk redneck got his throat cut in the parking lot of The Saloon. Maybe the incident makes the six ’o’clock news on a slow day, but probably not. Certainly not in a bigger media market. So what gives? It certainly is not that our society has suddenly learned to care about such things within the last month. We would much rather pretend the nikilism does not exist.
The reason the martin case has become big news is because touches on so many agendas that calling attention to it incites a war of all against all. Look what has happened: the white bigots are out in full force, the black bigots are offering a reward for Zimmerman’s “capture,” gun advocates are promoting self-defense, gun control advocates are advocating the Stand Your Ground law be repealed, celebrities are tweeting their opinions and far worse, and the media is rolling 24/7 with all of it. Just to make sure the matter still has our attention, the president of the United States weighed in and inflamed passions by saying if he had a son, the kid would look like Trayvon Martin. Why is Barack Obama commenting in the first place, much less trying to make it personal? Is it personal? Martin’s mother is allegedly trying to trademark his name to cash in.
Agendas, folks. Agendas. If the main agendas is to drive wedges between people, mission accomplished. We have everything from an elderly couple fleeing their home in fear because spike Lee tweeted the wrong address while trying to incite violence against someone else, a congressman booted off the house floor for wearing a hoodie, communists passing out leaflets at rallies in support of martin, etc, etc, and pretty much everyone terrified out of their minds to offer up a voice of reason for fear of being branded a racist. Of course, the fear of being randed a racist is such a horrible stigma in this country, it proves we do not have a racist culture, but that reality does not make for sensational headlines, does it?
Meanwhile, gas prices are rising due to misguided green energy policies, obamaCare is about to be struck down for incompetent drafting that ignored the Constitution, and Iranian war drums are beating louder than in a while. The birh whole birth control bruhaha did not cause enough of a conflict to distract the public for a sufficient amount of time. Maybe stoking cultural tensions with the martin incident will until another celebrity overdoses. Then we will something a little quieter to dwell on.
Seriously, I may sound conspiratorial and snaky here, but this is what is going on. The political leadership and the media have exposed a local news story with murky facts and are exploiting it for as long as they can for cover and ratings, respectively. This is not even the first time in recent memory. Casey Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, was a guest on Ed Shultz’s show last night commenting on the issue. When you want to drag out a minor, local issue to national attention in order to keep the public dumb and angry, go to the experts.
I am not interested in falling for it, so you are not going to see any further posts about Zimmerman or martin at the Eye. Whether written by me or linked from someone else in the Blogroll Spotlight, it is not happening. Formspring, either, for anyone thinking about taking that route. When and if I make up my mind about the matter--more if than when--it shall remain my secret.
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