Because I was not clear in my last report, and with reference to the Trayvon Martin killing a few weeks ago, I am not defending Zimmerman’s behavior; I think it was deplorable. It’s looking more and more like this was an unjust murder, and perhaps it was racially motivated. Three out of four Americans think that Zimmerman should have been charged with murder by the police. I don’t know what really happened here but I know profiling and racial injustice are a big problem in the United States. My only point was that celebrities and even the President jumped on this and threw gas on the fire. It sure looks like someone dropped the ball here, or the justice system failed, and the mere fact that vigilante rage was unleashed nationwide is evidence that this is a big and perhaps growing problem. It doesn’t help matters that Florida is an NRA sanctuary, one of the shoot-first-ask-questions-later states, and the “Stand Your Ground” law, while intended to give victims a chance to fight back, seems like it has serious potential to be misinterpreted. Kill whomever you want and then claim it was self defense. We go back to the ever-present gun debate: if guns are outlawed then only criminals will have guns vs. the right to bear arms is obsolete and not meant to provide justification for 300 Million Americans to carry assault rifles. I want to believe that Zimmerman’s dubious claim of self defense can be discredited in a court of law, if he’s even charged, but if not, then perhaps it’s time to change this problematic law. I understand the rage and indignation, but that doesn’t mean we should turn the killer over to a bunch of anti-Semitic vigilantes like The New Black Panther Party. That mob justice is no more civilized than what Zimmerman was accused of doing. I also don’t think Obama weighing in on this was at all helpful. It’s divisive and just what the Democrats would argue they are not. It also begs the question, do we want politicians acting as our moral compass? Seems oxymoronic to me.
Beach combers be on the look out. An unmanned Japanese fishing trawler was recently spotted off the West Coast of North America, over a year after the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, suggesting that the impending debris field is a little ahead of schedule. The philandering Tiger Woods won his first PGA tournament since 2009, and I’m so happy for him. Speaking of philanderers, last week former IMF hound dog Dominic Strauss-Kahn was charged with “aggravated pimping,” (hee hee) and I wasn’t even aware he drove a 1975 Monte Carlo with the “continental kit” and the genuine fake fur steering wheel. Of course he denied the charges, claiming he had no idea the pretty young girls at that party were paid to please. Sounds like a political smear campaign to me. Lots of pretty young girls prefer arrogant shriveled up old men to handsome younger men.
Tonight will be the last night I spend in my family home of 53 years. Tomorrow I head north and the next time I visit Buffalo, we will likely stay in a hotel. The closing is scheduled to be some time next week. Within several days the rest of the remaining items in the house will be cleared away and we will leave the new owners with an empty, “broom clean” house. Tabula Rasa. So many of my peers are now facing (or have already faced) the journey I have just completed. It was a long, emotional grind. I suppose it wouldn’t have been as hard had I not had such wonderful parents. On to the next leg of my journey.
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