Frankly, I would have been better off to not have known Trayvon Martin's name... [View all]

[MrScorpio]

Only if he were allowed to go on about his business that fateful night, so that he would have gotten back home safely without being molested and killed by a gun toting vigilante... I don't think that I would have learned his name.

Only if George Zimmerman wouldn't have felt that he needed to carry a gun while watching his neighborhood... I don't think that I would have learned his name.

Only if the cops and the DA would have done their jobs and arrested for prosecution a man who stalked and killed an innocent child... I don't think that I would have learned his name.

Only if simple justice didn't have to be conditionally based on race and class... I don't think that I would have learned his name.

But instead I now know is name, as does the rest of us.

So, we find out that we have to know his name in order to shed light upon the injustices, prejudices and fears that still plague our society. His name is now another reminder that we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that all things are equal.

As they're really not, right?

And every single day, I see that it's so easy for many of us to connect that dots. It serves as a tool to see with open eyes what is really happening all around us, if we choose to take notice, of course.

And I want to emphasize that it is a CHOICE to see what is really going on. Trayvon Martin's name serves that indicator to show who has made the choice to see and who has not.

To see the same actors at play… Those who allow injustices and inequalities to hold court in America. Cursing, whether someone is a racial or religious minority, or a woman, or a person who is not confined to some kind of narrow definition of "normal" sexuality, even someone who thinks that people are more important than banks or corporations… We are appalled to find so often that these are people who so frequently find themselves at the short end of the stick.

Yet, you and I know that it doesn't have to be that way. We could be better as a society.

However, we as that society, have allowed injustice and inequality to exist as some sort of legitimate right.

That fears and prejudices are somehow entitled, as well as patriarchy and politically ingrained zealotry. How have these things come to represent the American Way? I will posit that none of their defenders will offer any logical or reasonable answers as to why this has allowed to come to pass. They will scream, they will brandish weapons, they will excuse their own hypocrisy, they will defame and lie… They will do anything except speak the simple truth: That a decent America wouldn't allow these things to come to pass.

So because of this, we have all learned Trayvon Martin's name.

Now that we know his name, what will we do with it? What we all will achieve from the learning of his name to determine what kind of America we all want it to be?

I'm not going answer this question...

For it's an answer that we are all required to seek out and find. An epic struggle from both sides to arrive at that answer.

So be it, whatever IT is.