Responses to Trayvon Martin

All across our nation, the Trayvon Martin murder case has been sparking media attention. There is suddenly an overwhelming sense of support behind this poor victim and his family, in so many different ways.

In different cities, people are organizing marches where all of the participants wear their hoods up, as if to symbolize Trayvon Martin's last action. In Rochester, more than 1,000 people walked from the Liberty Pole to the Federal Building on Sunday, just to show their support for the case, for the mourning family, and to show that we are all in favor of justice being served.

Barack Obama was asked about the case; please watch his response below:

http://front.moveon.org/president-obamas-powerful-response-to-the-trayvon-martin-murder/

Obama is now being criticized for saying that if he had a son, the boy would look like Trayvon. Some have said that the President is implying that if Trayvon had been white, he would have not felt as much sympathy for him as he does right now. Personally, I think that people need to put their personal issues with Obama aside and focus on the task at hand: Trayvon Martin is dead. And the President was simply offering his condolensces to the Martin family, as well as implying that if Obama had a son, that boy could have died the same way Trayvon did.

The Miami Heat basketball players have also taken note of the tragedy. They posted a picture to Twitter with their hoods up, and their heads down, to honor and show support for Trayvon Martin. Martin's father commented on this and said that Trayvon was athletic and would have been touched by all of his role models knowing about him and honoring his life.



"These athletes are saying, 'It's not about who I am. It's about right and wrong. It's like everybody's taking notice.'" - Tracy Martin

On February 26th of this year, tragedy struck the Martin family when they heard the news of their 17 year old son, Trayvon, being shot and killed. What was he doing, you may ask? He was walking back to his father's fiancees home, in a gated community, carrying only an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. The murderer, 28 year old George Zimmerman, was a part of the neighborhood watch group.

There's nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that he has called police 46 times since the beginning of the year, he weighs twice what Trayvon does, and according to neighbors, was "fixated on crime and focused on young, black boys", AND he has been criticized by these same neighbors for his aggressive tactics. Yet, Zimmerman wasn't even tested for drugs or alchohol after he murdered Trayvon. He was questioned and released by the very same officer who was criticized for purposely releasing a lieutenant's son who clearly attacked a homeless man back in 2010.

 

If this isn't a case of racial profiling, I don't know what is. Trayvon's parents have even said that there is no doubt in their minds that if the shooter was black, and the victim was white, the black man would "still be sitting in jail." Zimmerman answered that Trayvon was black when asked, then repeated it, as if to make sure they knew what they were dealing with. Then, he claimed, "these a**holes always get away." What group was he referring to exactly? Franky I think the only person getting away here is George Zimmerman himself.

"I know America is the land of liberty, but my child has to understand he’s just free-ish."

-Christy Oglesby

(on teaching her son, Drew, that he must live his life worrying about not looking any sort of suspicious, due to racial profiling)

Ending the R-word

One thing I don't understand about our society today is why people think that other with mental disabilities are so inferior to them. A person is a person, and it doesn't matter if they have any kind of setback, at all. People use the "R-word" so regularly nowadays, as a way to describe something as stupid or weird. I understand that a majority of people don't mean direct offense when they say it, but what they are implying couldn't get any more rude if they tried.

People think that they have to treat those with disabilities in a different way, but you don't. Having worked with kids who have Autism and Down's Syndrome, I can tell you from firsthand experience that we can all learn something from these kids. They are happy, they live in the moment, they're grateful, and they certainly don't judge other people. 

I think everyone who insinuates that people with mental disabilities are stupid, or never going to make it in the real world should spend time with someone who actually lives with the condition, and then tell us all if they still think they same way. There are so many other words that you can use to imply that you think something is idiotic or stupid, but in doing so, you don't need to cut down something a person can't even control. You don't use slang terms that cut down a group of people who are the same race, so why is it okay to use slang words that cut down a group of people with mental disabilities? Truly, using the R-word in everyday life is nothing but a lack of respect and class, and everyone should think about that before the next time they say.

"Everyone has a gift and the world would be better off if we recognized it." -Timothy Shriver 

(Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics)