As her son had been shot down in the street and died
Just because of the system.
Woman hold her head and cry;
Comforting her I was passing by..." ~ Johnny Was~
Bob Marley's words were prophetic. Sadly, I can't comfort Trayvon Martin's mother, because even though I was trained to work and navigate my way through it, I don't quite understand "the system", either.
The young man under that police tarp in the picture is Trayvon Martin. He was laying there with a bullet in the middle of his heart because someone decided to ignore an official warning and pursue him in a place that he had every right to be in.
And now, sadly, that man is free.
Of course we are hearing from his attorneys that he shouldn't have been arrested in the first place. They claim that the only reason he was arrested is because he was white and the young victim was black.
That, of course, is preposterous.
Imagine for a minute that another African American male had shot Trayvon Martin. Do you really think that he would not have been immediately hand cuffed and arrested when the police came on the scene? Do you think that he would have been allowed to just walk into the police station and shoot the breeze with police officers like George Zimmerman did? Do you think the crime scene would have been compromised and the police department would have refused to arrest him as was the case with George Zimmerman?
When we first learned of the death of Trayvon Martin and the circumstances surrounding it, we were shocked and appalled to learn that there had not been at least an arrest in the case.
This is all I (and others) asked for, an arrest. Unfortunately it took weeks for justice to finally take its course.
Now some will argue that justice has been served, and that the system worked the way it is supposed to. "Field, let it go, you asked for the man's arrest and that was done. Now that a jury of his peers have set him free, you should deal with it."
Dealing with it is exactly what the Martins have been doing since they lost their son. And they had to sit in a courtroom and watch their dead son--- not the man who took his life--- put on trial.
So once again, to the parents of Trayvon, we feel sorry for you and your loss. We cannot feel your personal pain because you lost a child. But, like you, we feel the pain of injustice. That pain, unfortunately, is universal.
"Woman hold her head and cry;
Explaining to her was a passerby
Who saw the woman cry
Wondering how can she work it out,
Now she knows that the wages of sin is death..."
Did you hear that Mr. Zimmerman?
