Thursday, March 29, 2012

Trayvon Martin Tragedy and the Media's Focus

I do not know for a fact what happened on February 26th in Sanford, Florida. I do know that the captain of a neighborhood watch, 28 year old George Zimmerman, shot and killed unarmed  17 year old  Trayvon Martin. This is a tragedy regardless of what happened. I would argue that only Zimmerman and Martin actually know, and one of them is dead.

My heart and prayers go out to his family. I cannot imagine the pain that they are going through right now. It would appear that the incident was instigated by George Zimmerman based on the information that has been provided. He was told to stay in his car and he did not listen, plus the kid was unarmed that he fatally shot. That sounds open and shut to me, but until all of the information comes out it is a horrific tragedy that should have never occurred.

Now we move on to the media. SHAME ON YOU!! In the month since the shooting occurred it has changed from a horrific killing to a racist occurance (which it might be). Some how though the media has managed to turn this into a black vs white thing. Every where that I look I see or hear about the white adult shooting the black child. How is that possible when it was a Hispanic that did the shooting? Since when is a Hispanic considered white? It is more like a brown versus black thing.

The media is trying to make this a white versus black thing so they can generate more viewers through sensationalism and capitalize even more on a tragedy. They are emotionally stirring this up even more, and I am afraid that innocent people may get hurt. You have the New Black Panthers saying, "You kill one of mine, I have to kill one of yours!"Retaliation is never the answer, especially when it is racially motivated.  Racism is always wrong, wrong, wrong no matter who does it. Revenge is not the answer, either. Ghandi said it best, "An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind."

Regardless of what happened, this is a man using deadly force against a teen-ager that was unarmed. That makes it a tragic killing that should not have happened! This is clearly a wrong versus right issue. All race and color aside, the point is that an unarmed teenager was shot by a grown man.

That leads me to the next part of my blog. Why is the Trayvon Martin shooting on every channel and every hour that I see the news, yet there is hardly any mention of the daily deaths, strokes and seizures of teen-agers who are buying synthetic marijuana and methamphetamine in head shops and convenience stores across the United States? It is marketed under many names: potpourri, spice, bathing salts, jewelry cleaner, K-2, K-3, etc. How about having that on the news all of the time! It is sold in stores so people  people think that it is safe, and it is clearly not. Why are we not shutting down the places that knowingly sell the products that are killing our children?

Some people argue that there are lots of things sold that teens are abusing and dying from. That may be true, but they generally are buying these other products and using them as other than they were originally intended and/or having to combine them with other products or chemicals through a process in order to get high. They are not having to make something from the synthetics that are being sold I am talking about. They are using it in the same form they buy them in. It is murder in the worst case scenario and criminal negligence is the best you can say about it. If you want to argue that alcohol is legal and is just as bad or worse, I hear you. I wish that it was illegal, also.

In closing, it is definitely possible that the shooting of Trayvon was racially motivated. Why? Because racism is alive and well in our country. That is a very sad fact. That said, could we not only focus on the outrage over this shooting but also on the youth that are being rushed daily to the hospital and in some cases dying because of the synthetic drugs that people are selling in places of business? Can we please focus on our lack of proper prevention education to them! Please let us set our youth up to be successful and help them when they have issues instead of setting them up to fail and incarcerating them when they struggle!

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