Trayvon Martin rally: 'We must move from stand your ground to common ground'

Neither Kathy Sanders nor her son, Rico, had ever attended a political rally before, but they joined thousands of people in downtown Atlanta Saturday afternoon to pay tribute to Trayvon Martin and call for an end to racial profiling.

“Showing this kind of togetherness, maybe we can make a change,” said Kathy, a College Park resident and U.S. Postal Service clerk.

Rico Sanders, home for the summer from Jacksonville State where he’s a senior and a shooting guard on the basketball team, was selling T-shirts; five dollars of each sold would be donated to the Trayvon Martin Foundation, he said.

For Dionna Smith, a U.S. Navy veteran standing several yards away, this also marked a first political rally. Smith, who held a sign stating "I am Trayvon Martin," said that she’d participated in parades and marches as a veteran, but never marched for a cause like this. Smith said she was “shocked” last week when George Zimmerman was found not guilty in Martin’s death, but added that whatever the trial’s outcome, Zimmerman will “never walk the earth as a free man; the guilt of shooting Trayvon Martin will stay on his conscience.”

Rally attendees chanted, sang along as gospel star Jennifer Holliday belted out “We Shall Overcome,” and listened to speaker after speaker and prayer after prayer—despite the heavy rain that started shortly after the rally began and fell steadily for more almost an hour. The block between the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building and Richard B. Russell Federal Center was a sea of umbrellas; those who had worn hoodies out of solidarity with Martin pulled up their hoods as the rain continued.

Martin Luther King III and his sister, Bernice, made a joint appearance as the rally headed into its second hour. Martin III reminded the crowd about the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of his father’s famous “Dream” speech, and its less-famous call for the government to make good on the “bad check” issued to its black citizens. “The check still has not been cashed,” said King’s son, adding that he had just come from an NAACP conference at which there had been discussion of “not consuming certain things, like orange juice, from Florida.”

Bernice King said Martin’s death was a “wake up call” to continue to fight for justice. “In many regards, we have fallen asleep,” she said. “God woke us up just in time.”

Reverend Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Kings’ father and grandfather both preached, noted the hoodies among the crowd. “What’s so frightening about a black man in a hoodie in the rain?”he asked. On the other hand, he noted, “We have plenty of data to be worried when we see other folk moving through our neighborhood wearing hoods.”

Warnock called for stricter gun control laws. “We must move from stand your ground to common ground to common sense,” he said.

no thanks. i’ll stay with the law-abiding people who don’t burglarize other peoples’ homes, and train mma so that they can deliberately get into fights with other people.””””

I don’t think I am alone in these thoughts:

I don’t have any common ground with the Trayvon Martins of the world.

I speak ENGLISH- I don’t mumble Ebonics.

I know how to work for an employer. I show up on time or early & am prepared to do the job at hand for which I was hired.

I could not have even been hired for any job I have held if I had not attended school & paid attention to my classes & learned some skills which I could bring to an employer. I actually learned ‘cursive’ in about 5th grade & at age 19, I already had been working full time over 18 months.

I shower & brush my teeth EVERY DAY & pay attention to my personal grooming.

I don’t wear clothes that expose my underwear with the pants crotch hanging down to my knees.

My hair is properly groomed.

I take care of the items I own. I don’t expect others to provide me with an Obamaphone—food stamps—free medical—etc. I still own items in my household which I bought & paid for myself—and some of which are over 50 years old.

I don’t steal.

I don’t physically attack others just to prove that I can. I never heard of the ‘Knockout Game’ until Trayvon Martin came along.

I don’t roam parking lots at the Mall or other large venues to cause trouble.

I don’t riot & damage or loot stores when the athletic team I support wins a major game.

I don’t wear hoodies or other clothing which covers up my identity when I am inside any sort of business establishment.

I don’t demand or extort money from people based upon perceived slights they didn’t put forth at me.

I don’t roam the streets at all hours of the night.

I don’t discard my trash in a manner which leads to further deterioration of my community.

I don’t use drugs—nor do I deal drugs—nor do I support the usage of drugs by anyone in my community.

I pay my bills & I don’t appear on TV court shows for 15 minutes of fame to show how stupid I can be to not pay the rent or pay back a ‘loan’ I needed from ‘my friend or family member’ which I now refuse to pay back until told on national TV that I am a fool. Thank you, Judge Joe Brown. He must be totally embarrassed by his own black culture.

When I did rent, before I bought my first house, I didn’t damage the premises of the landlord in the chronic belief that ‘he can afford to fix my damages without any recompense from me’—or worse: he/she is white & he/she is taking advantage of my black skin by even charging me rent in the first place.

I don’t steal the wheels & tires off another person’s car when they are at the movies.

I don’t keep a pit bull which is a menace to the entire neighborhood because I need to protect my drug stash & drug dealings at my ‘crib’.

I wash my clothes regularly and change them regularly.

I don’t collect government assistance & then pay out $200 for a pair of athletic shoes because some other athlete endorsed those shoes.

I don’t hang onto the idea that ‘dancing’ or ‘singing hip-hop’ or ‘dunking a basketball’ or ‘tackling the ball carrier’ is the only way to get out of the miserable conditions I have set up for myself.

I never committed crimes—especially as a juvenile—with the attitude that “I won’t be punished because I am a kid”.

I don’t cry poverty when I have a mouthful of bling. Toothpaste would be cheaper.

I don’t allow crime to go unwatched or unreported in my neighborhood. I also don’t attack the police & firemen when they are trying to help the community.

I don’t burn down buildings the night before Halloween just because I can do so.

I DO NOT have ‘anything in COMMON’ with this segment of society in the USA. I am pretty confident that I am not alone.

DO NOT demand that I even try to understand them. They are proving to be feral animals. Where I live- rural- we dispose of such feral animals who are a menace.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.