Because I am not Trayvon, I had the privilege of taking a walk at 2am [View all]

[nadine_mn]

I am female, 39, white latina living in Minnesota - about as far from Trayvon Martin as one can get.

I live 10 min north of Minneapolis and I am an insomniac. So around 2am most mornings, I walk our dogs - a german shepherd and a black lab mix. We live next to a very busy road, no sidewalks within a good .5 mile around us, so walking at night with no traffic is ideal - plus in the summer its cooler and our german shepherd is a little too excitable and there are lots of dogs that live around us. For the 10 plus yrs we have lived in our rented house, I have walked our dogs (first a collie mix, and two black lab mixes, then added the shepherd, and now the collie and elder black lab have passed away, so it just 2 dogs) in the middle of the night - anywhere between 10pm to 4am, and never gave it a second thought.

I have had many a police cruiser pass us by over the years, never once have I worried about being stopped. We have come across neighbors coming home late or outside their homes, and never worried that they would find us suspicious. I have worn a hoodie, bundled up in the winter, shorts in the summer - never worried my clothing would be deemed thuglike.

This behavior - walking around at night - is not new to me. I have always walked at night and never worried about my safety. In college and law school, I often had jobs that had late shifts or late nights trying to get my work done at the last minute and walking home in the dark never once bothered me. I walked home from bars, from parties, from work, from school - all the time and never worried about getting attacked or being thought of as suspicious or worried about being harassed by police.

Now, to be fair - I have not lived in the most crime-ridden areas - I went to college in Wisconsin, then transferred to Minnesota, went to law school in Des Moines and now live north of Minneapolis. But crime can and does happen everywhere and college campuses are not the safest place for a young woman to be wandering around drunk (which was me more than once). Don't worry, I know how stupid I was and the risks I took - my grandma lectured me often.

The only thing I really fear are bugs and small animals that jump out at me - toads are the worst in the summer. Please don't think I have lived a sheltered life. As a child, I was physically, emotionally and sexually abused. I think because I survived all that, it gave me a false sense of invincibility - I fought a lot as young girl and teen and to this day I am not one to back down from a physical altercation.


It never occurs to me when I am out wondering through the neighborhoods with my flashlight and plastic bag to clean up after a dog - that I might be considered a threat. Nor does it ever occur to me to be worried that someone is going to attack me (ok, the dogs help, but even without them I don't worry).

And you know what, no one - not me, not you, certainly not Trayvon - should ever have to worry about being attacked or gunned down for walking home. Race, age, manner of dress, location - none of that should matter.

This tragedy has so many lessons to be learned - and opens my eyes to things I take for granted - that I should be able to take for granted - that everyone has a right to take for granted. I hope that when this is no longer "news", we don't forget and we don't his death be just another statistic.