Tray-tray was not carrying canned iced tea with him. He was carrying Arizona brand Watermelon Fruit Juice. No joke!
Posted on 05/25/2012 11:55:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
HOLD OFF ON THE SKITTLES, FOR NOW…
My fellow political junkies…allow me to briefly stray from usual fare of R’s vs. D’s and delve a bit into a subject I’ve been knee deep in lately. A couple of weeks ago I was sent to Florida to, as the boss put it, “dig up something new” on the Trayvon Martin case - a daunting assignment since it’s a story much of the media world had already thoroughly exposed…or so we thought.
While we were successful in finding some undiscovered nuggets in the investigation, what I really determined after surveying the neighborhood at day and night, reading countless background reports and talking with neighbors is that….we got it WRONG!
Yes, egg-on-our-faces wrong. We the media. We the general public. We the newsmakers on Capitol Hill.
How? We assumed. Then we took those assumptions, mixed them in a bowl full of emotions, prejudices, bigotry and election-year politics and got what we have now: a pressure cooker ready to constantly boil over.
Let’s start with the associations.
Case in point:
Friday, Malcolm X Elementary School in Washington DC decided to hold essentially a Trayvon Martin day. Students received bags of Skittles. Parents were encouraged to gulp down cold cans of Arizona Iced Tea. I’m not being glib. This is true. Really.
The school is technically calling it the “Let’s Save Our Children” seminar to “allow this travesty to become a teachable moment in our community. This seminar will also act as a vehicle to establish partnerships between all community stakeholders.”
It seems countless people instantly picked sides…which are fine. We do it with sports/politics/reality TV.
But carrying ‘We Are Trayvon’ signs and donning hoodies or donating piles of money to the GZ Defense Fund were a bit presumptuous on most peoples’ behalves. None of us knows what really happened that night…yet passionate arguing could break out in any office space or cul-de-sac if you voiced favor for the ‘team’ opposite your co-worker or neighbor.
The photos of the two were subject to completely different interpretation based on which ones hit your ‘inbox’ (or which ones the news chose to publish). The backgrounds of the two were challenged or dismissed based on one’s own life experience. (Mind you, both had differences with the law over the years) The evidence was unknown yet we all seemed positive we could determine wound severity from some grainy surveillance video.
It was like a really bad game of Clue and none of us were going to win. Supposedly there was no doubt Trayvon Martin was the one yelling for help 14 times in 38 seconds. Then came the discovery papers last week and we learned neighbors say it was Zimmerman crying for help and that even Trayvon’s father after listening to 6 different audio tapes, admitted it was not his son shouting for assistance.
Supposedly Zimmerman’s injuries were superficial. Then we learn he suffered (although not requiring immediate hospitalization) a broken nose and serious cuts to the back of his head.
Supposedly officers gave Zimmerman a pass because he was ‘white’ and a neighborhood watch captain. Then we discover at least one officer felt Zimmerman should be charged with manslaughter and a special prosecutor with a highly-impressive record chose to charge him with the greater crime of 2nd degree murder.
Now, despite those accounts, reporters and supporters alike refuse to admit anything’s been clarified though some would really just rather not admit they got it wrong.
Sound confusing?
That’s the point. We don’t know.
We don’t know!
Yet we are almost all guilty of spreading half-truths and stirring the pot, even if unintentionally.
Finally, there’s Washington. You show me a polarizing controversy and I’ll show you a beltway full of politicos ready to take up verbal arms.
And of course, it also doesn’t help race relations when the President of the United States says if he had a son he would “…look like Trayvon.” He added another ingredient to this culinary disaster.
Further, plenty of people in-the-know have told me we’d be naïve to think DC didn’t have a heavy hand in the FBI’s choice to open a civil rights investigation to determine if what George Zimmerman did was a hate crime. IE, the orders came from up high.
So what does this all boil down to? That’s just it. Nobody knows. None of us were there in the dark, on that poorly-lit corner, in the rain, observing the struggle and none of us know if George Zimmerman profiled and pursued a young, black stranger…or… if Trayvon Martin jumped and battered a concerned resident.
The trial isn’t likely to start until the spring of next year. There are mounds of evidence to be sorted through and multiple hearings to hold. That’s a long time for unnecessary prognosticating and dividing. Until then, perhaps it’s best for journalists to just share only what’s responsible, citizens to think twice before choosing a side & for politicians to focus on budgets, infrastructure, energy…anything other than the unfortunate death of a young man and the impending, life-changing trial of another.
Hey...joisey lowered the flag for a junkie...MLK got himself a statue in the Capital...IT DOESN’T BELONG THERE!!! It belongs in Mississippi...........
Trayvon Martin, thug extraordinaire. Career cut short by engaging in a piece of street bullying just a little bigger than he should have taken on.
“Yet we are almost all guilty of spreading half-truths and stirring the pot, even if unintentionally.”
What a bunch of BS. It was the Leftist race hustlers, the Leftists media, and Leftist FReepers who were doing such!
We know white people are racist, because they’re white. It’s easy to tell.
George Zimmerman is white.
Maybe we can get the black woman Elizabeth Warren to act as the prosecuting attorney.
/sarc(???)
It reads like a Cheech & Chong or a Richard Pryor routine.
I’m not surprised but I am amazed at the effort expended by teachers & pupils alike in perpetuating ignorance.
The author perpetuates the white on black racial crime myth when he omits the detail that the subjects were actually hispanic and black - reducing the “privileged majority white guy” bias as a dimensional element.
ONE Trayvon Martin Day in school.
Rest of the year is ALL Obama and nothing but Obama Days, (PBWH, piss be with him), 364/24/7.
Make no mistake. The entire Trayvon “cause celeb” was contrived after the fact as a grounds for reversing the recent advances of ordinary Americans to defend themselves.
The PTB can’t have sheep that won’t act like sheep.
Make no mistake. The entire Trayvon “cause celeb” was contrived after the fact as a grounds for reversing the recent advances of ordinary Americans to defend themselves.
The PTB can’t have sheep that won’t act like sheep.
I’m not sure which is more shocking! That there is actually a “Malcolm X” school or the Trayvon BS?! It’s like a comedy skit from “In Living Color”.
Does Washington DC have a Ronald Reagan Elementary School?
There's actually a public school named after Malcolm X? Where's the Benito Mussolini Middle School or the Benedict Arnold Junior High?
Or Adolf Hitler or Ossama Bin Laudin High?
“Friday, Malcolm X Elementary School in Washington DC decided to hold essentially a Trayvon Martin day. Students received bags of Skittles. Parents were encouraged to gulp down cold cans of Arizona Iced Tea. I’m not being glib. This is true. Really.”
Regardless of what happens with the Zimmerman trial, we can see where this is headed.
The left is going to turn “Trayvon Martin” into a latter-day Emmet Till, and that’s how he’s going to be cannonized in “leftist history”.
Twenty-five years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if his name is found in history books, placed there with the intent of “proving” that “racism” still exists, and that it -forever will- exist in the minds of whites. All to justify the need for “anti-discrimination” laws to remain on the books, even as American whites slip into a minority status in [what once was] their own nation...
The fact that there even exists a Malcolm X Elementary School is the first clue that we have a problem much deeper than the immediate subject matter of the story.
The point is the author hasn't put the race card away. He does indeed know the autopsy report shows Martin had marjuana in his system and from the police reports he knows Zimmerman had cuts on the back of his head and a broken nose.
When is the 100 foot tall Treyvon Memorial going up ?
Not called the "poor man's PCP" for just any old reason.
So off in the rain to 7-11.
On the way back, he was either casing unlit houses or wandering around in a mental fog. One could even surmise he was just trying new 'routes' home.
Nothing , however, explains or excuses sucker punching Zimmerman and beating his head into the curb.
“Students received bags of Skittles. Parents were encouraged to gulp down cold cans of Arizona Iced Tea.”
I see this nonsense as an ‘in your face white boy’ message.
There WILL be a breaking point and then.... there will be “teachable moments”, then....... there will be regrets.
Never before in the history of our country, has one man been so successful at dividing America into so many pieces. I wish Obama and his corrupt tribe the absolute worst for what they have deliberately done to our country.
There WILL be a breaking point .
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