There's a moment in our lives where we have to start accepting the consequences of our actions. It's not a color thing, race thing, male/female thing. It's a fact thing. The Zimmerman trial has everyone that thought the kid was murdered in an uproar. A jury of Zimmerman's peers found him innocent. Those of us that weren't on that jury have no idea why when it comes right down to it. But the idea that the young Trayvon was innocent isn't really true either. If it was, George Zimmerman would be going to prison. Is it a travesty? I don't know for sure, but my bet is that the jury saw Zimmerman as a zealous neighbor who called the cops and made sure to follow the kid in order to "deter" him from committing any crimes in the neighborhood. Unfortuately, we've become so "soft" on crime over the years that criminals have taken to home invasions--robberies in broad daylight are not uncommon anymore. We've all heard stories of someone coming up to someone's door and asking for help only to bust in the doorway. A woman in NJ was beaten, all caught on a nanny cam, by a robber who after beating her threw her down the stairs, presumably leaving her for dead. I don't like when any of those sales people come to my door. I don't care what they're selling; it mortifies me that I might have to defend myself.
Should a boy be cutting through a neighborhood after buying Skittles? I don't know. I'm not from that area, and therefore, have no idea what the layout of the land was. Was his neighborhood anywhere near there or did it seem like he was "casing out the neighborhood"? Since Zimmerman lived in a gated community and the young man did not live in the gated community, it seems a little odd to me that he would be wandering in the community at all. Gated communities typically have guarded entrances and high fences all the way around to make it difficult to cut through them. Was jumping a fence to take a short cut, particularly one around a gated community, easier than wandering around the community? It all strikes me as odd. I don't live in a gated community, but I live in a neighborhood that is smaller and at the edge of other neighborhoods before entering farm country. If someone was wandering around our neighborhood, it would seem extremely odd, and honestly, I would want my neighbors to pay attention, call the police, follow them and ensure that they didn't break into someone's home. It would mortify me if I found out that I hadn't kept an eye on someone and then my neighbor's house was broken into, and/or worse yet, my neighbor was hurt. I can completely understand why Zimmerman would've followed this kid. It was a gated community that the kid wasn't a member of. Could he have been there for honest reasons? Sure, but no one from the community has come forth and said so. So why in the heck was a kid cutting through a gated community that we know he had to leap some kind of wall or fence to even wander anyway?
Was Zimmerman right in confronting the kid? Not sure. It sounds more like the kid got antsy because he was being followed and turned around and confronted Zimmerman--by the excerpt played on television of his friend that was on the phone with him said. He called her, said he was being followed and by her own statements didn't seem "scared" at all. So the kid according to Zimmerman turns on him and confronts him. He's leaping a fence or wall into a gated community and he looks suspicious. It seems even more suspicious that he would turn and confront the guy following him. If he wasn't up to "no good", then why not say something like, "gee, sorry, I just wanted to cut through because it was faster (or whatever)". Seems kind of stupid to call the guy following him a "cracker" to his friend on the phone, and racist--but let's not go there, and a bit like he had a chip on his shoulder about where he was anyway. At that point, he sounds like he might have been looking for the altercation. Sure, why not? Some old dude versus a teenager. Odds are very good to the kid that he can take the old guy. From the pictures of Zimmerman after the altercation, the boy did exactly that. Turned, confronted, and thought he could beat this old guy up. Wouldn't that be funny? I've got a son who over the last 3 to 5 years has hung around with jackasses that I could see behaving like that. Honestly, I'm a little mortified to say that I could see my son getting stupid like that. I'd hope that he would be smarter than that, but he's 20 now and I've got no say. Doesn't look like Trayvon's mother had a lot of say in her son's behaviors either. Unfortunately, that is how it works. We raise them the best we can, and sometimes no matter how good (or not) we have tried, we have no say in the mistakes that they make. Should this kid have known better? Probably. Who's fault is that? It's not Zimmerman's. It's not his mother's. Is it partially society's? Perhaps that's the real reason we feel so torn, but ultimately it is Trayvon's decision to turn around and confront Zimmerman. It is his decision that ended badly.
Is society partially to blame? We've told our teenagers that the world revolves around them, to the point that many people don't like to go to malls if teenagers are hanging out in droves. Signs don plenty of mall entrances that kids can only be in groups less than 5 or 3 or whatever. We built in our own fears because we bought into all that Dr. Spock crap about treating kids with "respect". We don't learn "respect" by "respect". I'm all about "lead by example", but at 5 years old, there is no "reasoning" with a child. The child's mind is quite different than an adult's mind. The message they get loud and clear when we try to reason with them is that there are no consequences for their own bad behavior. Sitting in a corner versus a spanking? Seriously, I would've loved to sit in a corner when I was little. I'd have sung to myself or made faces at the wall or gotten mad and acted out worse. Not what happened though, I got a good old fashioned spanking and was told that is not the way to behave. When I was a teenager, a spanking would've been worthless, and if we don't teach them from early on, well, it's too late once they're teenagers. They pick the habits of their friends up, they have their own minds, and reasoning with them at that point is all going to go back to the foundation that we've taught them much earlier on. We all are starting to recognize that we are part of the problem, and we don't want a kid to die because we didn't set limits on them, on their peers or on behaviors. So this tragedy, we know is partially our fault. The boy didn't belong behind the walls of the gated community, but many adults act like they can go anywhere or do anything that they want. As adults we know the risk, as a teenager, this boy should've too. But we've sent mixed messages to their generation. We make media mogals of "bad people" like serial killers, school shooters, and other heinous people. Then we expect a kid who hopped a wall he shouldn't have, have enough sense to not attack a guy following him through the community...it might be partially our own fault and we are now just realizing it.
Do I care about the verdict? Not really. I 'm glad that the jury thought Zimmerman was in the right only because I don't want someone wandering in my community, a neighbor doing the same thing--following them and making sure they didn't break into anyone's home--having the wanderer turn around on them, attack them, and then cry victim. It's not about race. I don't care about race. I've got friends of all colors, shapes and sizes. It's about not wanting someone breaking into my neighbor's home or mine, for that matter. Those people that have been perpetrating the home invasions might want to think twice after hearing the verdict, and frankly, I'm good with that too. Do I think the kid "deserved" to die? Not sure, but the kid obviously didn't consider all the consequences. He certainly didn't consider that he could end up in jail because of assault and that circumstances would look very bad for him since he had jumped a wall to be in the community he was in. He certainly wasn't worried about juvenile hall or possibly being tried as an adult for his actions, and from my point of view, he damn well should've. Why he didn't isn't really my concern. Just the actions, the reactions, and what impact it has on someone that might be wandering in my neighborhood that might decide on malicious actions.
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