America, what time is it? Where are you now?
I’m sure many of our international readers might be wondering why am I asking my own country these questions. But I know many of you are looking at the news coming out of America wondering not how or why we have lost our way, but how and why we have lost our minds.
Lately it seems our country has forgotten what time it is. Not just the minutes and the hours, but the years and decades. There are some here it seems who are obsessively focused on an America that existed roughly around 1960. A time when civil rights was a whisper at cocktail parties, and women’s choice and reproductive freedom were not openly discussed.
On Feb. 26 Trayvon Martin, a young black kid not more than 17 years old, was hounded and gunned down by a “gated neighborhood watcher” vigilante named George Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman thought the bag of Skittles and can of ice tea Martin was carrying was a deadly weapon, and felt threatened enough by Martin’s presence to follow him as he tried to walk to his friend’s house for a visit. He chased him down, and ultimately shot him. It took three days for Trayvon Martin’s parents to be notified of his death, and another three weeks before his killing became national news.
The police of Sanford, Florida where the shooting took place, have not arrested Zimmerman, citing that Zimmerman was acting legally under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which sanctions shooting someone you suspect could harm you. Even though the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into the incident and a grand jury will convene April 10 on the matter, to this day, Zimmerman has not been taken into custody or charged with the shooting.