Over the last 18 hours I have seen mixed emotions on the verdict that was handed down last night. First and foremost, my prayers do genuinely go out to the parents of Trayvon Martin. Regardless of the sordid past this young man had, it is always heartbreaking to lose a child and to see someone lose a child, regardless of their age. Second, my prayers go out to the Zimmerman family, their lives are forever changed by this event as well. This entry will be neither short nor sweet. It is what it is and if you're offended by my idea of facts and truth, you may want to stop reading now.
I have followed this case since nearly day one. I also want to admit that in the early days, I was actually on the side of Martin. Without all the evidence, I read a sensational headline and went with my emotions : A 17 year old unarmed kid had been shot by a grown man. As a woman with two small boys, that hit home, hard. However, as the facts began to reveal themselves, and I researched more and more, I realized that there was WAY more to the story than first thought. Come to find out the picture of this "child" that was first shown was a five year old picture of a 12 year old smiling kid. Yep, I took the bait hook line and sinker right off the bat. This "child" was actually a 6'2" 170lb grown man himself. The only thing that even makes him a "child" was his age, and that honestly doesn't make him a child. It simply makes him a minor. Believe it or not there is in fact a difference. Without going through this entire ordeal step by step, because if you haven't been following the case itself, then this post doesn't apply to you anyway, I will skip to my opinion on the verdict.
I truly believe with the evidence presented, the verdict was fair. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that George Zimmerman provoked Martin. There is no evidence that suggests that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin. There is NO evidence that Zimmerman racially profiled Martin. Therefore, with there being no evidence of any of these things the state accused him of, the only option could have been a Not Guilty verdict. I am no law scholar don't claim to be nor do I want to be, however, with an objective mind anyone can clearly see that what I stated is factual. With that said...
I am BEYOND tired of people making this into a racial/political/adult vs child issue. You have no IDEA how tired I am of seeing people spin this situation into something that suits what they feel. I am disappointed and saddened that some of my fellow Americans are calling for the heads of those six women who bravely, in my opinion, followed the law and not the narrative. I am sick of being called a racist because I sided with facts and evidence, and not emotion. I am sick to death of seeing further divide between myself and my fellow Americans simply due to political affiliation or skin color. This did not have to go down the way it did, and frankly, I blame the race baiters, I blame the politically correct crowd, I even blame our president who had no business sticking his nose in a local issue.
My point in all of this is last night proved that our justice system does in fact still work. We may not agree with it, but it is still as fair as possible. Things not going our way does not constitute an injustice, it is what it is. Maybe we all can learn a thing or two from this, but unfortunately, I fear most of us won't. Also unfortunate, that while it should be, this is far from over.
