"Hero" Is An Earned Honor

The death of Mr. Tayvon Martin was a tragedy.  As Mr. Zimmerman’s attorney put it, the conviction of Mr. Zimmerman as charged would have been a travesty. The Martin family had every right to press the authorities for full consideration of the facts. However, both self-appointed and positioned spokespersons for black Americans fed an undisciplined, unprofessional and self-serving media juggernaut with hyperbolic and false racist allegations prior to and during the trial. THIS frenzy assuredly prompted the prosecution to overcharge with Murder when, as shown by all of the evidence at trial, there existed insufficient evidence even to arrest on that charge. The verdict of the jury is unassailable given the facts as presented at trial.

Now in the aftermath of the trial the same black “leaders” and media present hyperbole, conjecture and racist fear mongering in an attempt to justify their earlier wrongs to the system and Mr. Zimmerman and to further their own agendas.  I heard one black high official in the NAACP state that Trayvon Martin will occupy the same status and image as Medgar Evers, a black-American civil rights activist assassinated for his work in Mississippi in 1963. That angers and sickens me and should every American – particularly black-Americans.

  

Eyewitness evidence put Martin on top of and beating down on Zimmerman; Zimmerman’s injuries were consistent with that observation; Zimmerman claimed Martin initiated the physical encounter with a punch to the face; Zimmerman sustained a broken nose; there were no significant inconsistencies in Zimmerman’s statements; Zimmerman said the Martin had looked like he was on drugs; Martin in a store video seemed to weave; Martin had marijuana in his system; nothing showed racial bias or racial “profiling” by Zimmerman.

Conjure, speculate, twist and ignore what you will, Trayvon Martin deserves no honors for his conduct that night.  Certainly, neither does Zimmerman.  And don’t dare for political self-aggrandizement or action mention Martin’s name alongside that of Medgar Evers. To do so belittles the true heroes.

A form of democracy in Egypt

Some thoughts while switching from CNN to MSNBC to al Jazeera to Fox News and back around...

In Hong Kong, Portugal, Turkey, Egypt and other countries, existing governments and their ideologies are challenged by hundreds of thousands of citizens assembling and protesting in the streets.  There is often no right to, belief in or patience for an electoral process to bring about change.  Of course, the "mobs" may be manipulated and in the minority.  They may be deceiving or destructive.  They may have force of arms or not.  They may hold the will and desires of the majority of citizens or not.  Where there is protest there may be counter-protest.  Where there is success, the governments either change or adjust.  Repression or relief may follow.

On a vastly different scale Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protesters expressed their own challenge within our democracy.  To this point, it is our assumptions that the primary offices, the congress, the executive and the Supreme Court understand, accept, appreciate and apply the rules of law drawn from the Constitution for the Common Welfare.  Whiskey and tea advocates aside, we accept the primacy and legitimacy of the ballot over the street.  At least for now.

Is Egypt an example of what form "democracy" must take there (and elsewhere) if it is to have any existence where assumptions such as ours are not held by the people?  Does the faith in or the need for the Egyptian Army as the core of the nation compare to our faith and need for the Constitution?  The Egyptian people have found a way to express and demand their pluralistic interests through freedom of assembly.  "Democracy" evolves or will kill itself.