Op-Ed
Well, I am very disappointed at the fact that Zimmerman was found not guilty because I know, as well as everyone else, that George Zimmerman committed homicide, on the day of April 11, 2012. The fact that his father was a retired judge and that his parents had money means they could have paid the judge and the police off so that George could be proven not guilty. In other words, who really knows the reason he wasn't found guilty?
Also, I do not understand why African Americans get so enraged when a white person kills a black person. We have people dying every day from black-on-black crime and no one ever cares, right? Because it’s no big deal.
So, before we point the finger, I believe it is important to make a difference in the world we live in, to start a change, and be the change. Believe it or not, according a report published by Columbus Dispatch on July 18, 2013, the crime rate for homicides in Columbus from 2000-2012 has actually lowered down to 44.
Also, I do not understand why African Americans get so enraged when a white person kills a black person. We have people dying every day from black-on-black crime and no one ever cares, right? Because it’s no big deal.
So, before we point the finger, I believe it is important to make a difference in the world we live in, to start a change, and be the change. Believe it or not, according a report published by Columbus Dispatch on July 18, 2013, the crime rate for homicides in Columbus from 2000-2012 has actually lowered down to 44.
After a long, enduring struggle in Afghanistan, President Obama is considering an accelerated troop withdraw from the tempestuous state. Whereas the current exit strategy includes the steady removal of troops before January 2015, recent developments between Mr. Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have led to some mild reconsideration. During the past few months, a period in which deal making was atop the priority list, the two leaders’ relationship has all but completely collapsed. Frustrated, President Obama is now considering a ‘zero option’ concerning the Afghanistan War.
U.S. whistleblower and international hero Bradley Manning has just been awarded the 2013 Sean MacBride Peace Award by the International Peace Bureau, itself a former recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for which Manning is a nominee this year.
A petition supporting Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize has gathered 88,000 sinatures, many of them with comments, and is aiming for 100,000 before delivering it to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. Anyone can sign and add their comments at ManningNobel.org
The International Peace Bureau (IPB) represents 320 organizations in 70 countries. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. Over the years, 13 of IPB's officers have been Nobel Peace laureates. See ipb.org
A petition supporting Manning for the Nobel Peace Prize has gathered 88,000 sinatures, many of them with comments, and is aiming for 100,000 before delivering it to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. Anyone can sign and add their comments at ManningNobel.org
The International Peace Bureau (IPB) represents 320 organizations in 70 countries. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. Over the years, 13 of IPB's officers have been Nobel Peace laureates. See ipb.org
President Barack Obama eloquently described the agony experienced among African-Americans from the slaying of Trayvon Martin. He called for a more thoughtful “conversation” on race, convened not by politicians, but among families, in churches and workplaces. He suggested modest steps to provide greater training on racial profiling with police, greater efforts to figure out how to do a “better job helping young African-American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed.”
The president’s courageous comments merit praise and consideration. But we’ve had a long conversation about race in America. No small part of American history has been devoted to that “conversation” and that struggle. And as the president said, great progress has been made.
What we need now is action. The president’s personal narrative must translate into policy. His sentiments must be turned into meaningful solutions.
The president’s courageous comments merit praise and consideration. But we’ve had a long conversation about race in America. No small part of American history has been devoted to that “conversation” and that struggle. And as the president said, great progress has been made.
What we need now is action. The president’s personal narrative must translate into policy. His sentiments must be turned into meaningful solutions.
The acquittal by jury of Goerge Zimmerman who shot and murdered the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin was emblematic of the consistent racism and double standard used in the treatment of minority groups or those deemed "Other" in the U.S. and around the world. Where is there justice in a world in which so many people suffer oppression and in which those who choose to use violence as a way to address and deal with their hatred and fear often seem to triumph?
Jewish theology holds that there is a karmic order, so that evil actions will not always run the world. Justice and compassion are both essential to the survival of the planet. Unlike many religions that focus on individual sinners and imagine that they will be punished in some future not currently verifiable--for example in a heaven or hell after life, or in a reincarnation in some form that provides rewards or punishments for how one lives in this world, most of Jewish theology sees karma as playing out on a societal scale, and over the long run.
Jewish theology holds that there is a karmic order, so that evil actions will not always run the world. Justice and compassion are both essential to the survival of the planet. Unlike many religions that focus on individual sinners and imagine that they will be punished in some future not currently verifiable--for example in a heaven or hell after life, or in a reincarnation in some form that provides rewards or punishments for how one lives in this world, most of Jewish theology sees karma as playing out on a societal scale, and over the long run.
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I can't say I was surprised at the verdict. Because, to apply the famous words of George Zimmerman, these assholes always get away. There is a lot of blame to go around for the fact that there is no Justice for Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17- year old African American kid who was profiled, hunted, and killed. High on the list of what killed Trayvon and what allowed his murderer to go free is the white privilege and systems of racism and oppression that this country was built upon and executes (pun intended) with full force, in a slightly more nuanced form, today.
I can't say I was surprised at the verdict. Because, to apply the famous words of George Zimmerman, these assholes always get away. There is a lot of blame to go around for the fact that there is no Justice for Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17- year old African American kid who was profiled, hunted, and killed. High on the list of what killed Trayvon and what allowed his murderer to go free is the white privilege and systems of racism and oppression that this country was built upon and executes (pun intended) with full force, in a slightly more nuanced form, today.
If Trayvon Martin were not a young black male, he would be alive today. Despite the verdict, it's clear that George Zimmerman would never have confronted a young white man wearing a hoodie. He would, at the very least, have listened to the cops and stayed back. Trayvon Martin is dead because Zimmerman believed that "these guys always get away" and chose not to wait for the police.
Trayvon Martin's death shatters the convenient myths that blind us to reality. That reality, as the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board wrote, is that "black men carry a special burden from the day they are born."
Both the prosecutor and the defense claimed that the trial was not about race. But Trayvon Martin was assumed to be threatening just for walking while being young, black and male.
That is the reality that can no longer be ignored. Through the years, gruesome horrors -- the murder of Emmitt Till, the shooting of Medgar Evers in his front yard -- have galvanized African Americans and public action on civil rights. Trayvon Martin's death should do the same.
Trayvon Martin's death shatters the convenient myths that blind us to reality. That reality, as the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board wrote, is that "black men carry a special burden from the day they are born."
Both the prosecutor and the defense claimed that the trial was not about race. But Trayvon Martin was assumed to be threatening just for walking while being young, black and male.
That is the reality that can no longer be ignored. Through the years, gruesome horrors -- the murder of Emmitt Till, the shooting of Medgar Evers in his front yard -- have galvanized African Americans and public action on civil rights. Trayvon Martin's death should do the same.
There are four types of ways to categorize murder: first degree, second degree, felony murder and manslaughter. First degree murders are crimes that are exceptional and premeditated. Second degree murder is the killing with malice and no respect for the law, but with no prior deliberation. Felony murder is an accidental death that occurs during the commission of a felony. Lastly there is manslaughter, which the taking of someone's life without previous planning. No matter how you label it, each of these acts are considered to be illegal and if committed, serious jail time is involved. The punishments may vary but none the less, murderers pay for the crime they commit.
Today in America things have changed. Killing people is the way to go now? We kill innocent people and get away with it? That's how the justice system works in America? Talk about the land of the free. George Zimmerman brutally shot and killed Trayvon Martin and got away with it. What does that say about our court and federal systems?
Today in America things have changed. Killing people is the way to go now? We kill innocent people and get away with it? That's how the justice system works in America? Talk about the land of the free. George Zimmerman brutally shot and killed Trayvon Martin and got away with it. What does that say about our court and federal systems?
Did the ghosts of our slave-holding and Jim Crow past high-five each other in the Florida courtroom on Saturday? George Zimmerman was acquitted, but does that mean that American history was, too?
The experts who weighed in on the legal battle essentially noted that, in the absence of any witnesses other than Zimmerman, the prosecution couldn’t prove what had happened, or more to the point, couldn’t convincingly counter-argue his version of events – that he was returning to his car when Trayvon Martin assaulted him and threw him to the ground, forcing him to kill the boy in self-defense. Trayvon was dead; that left him, legally, voiceless and out of luck.
Hmm . . . wasn’t that the case anyway?
The incident blew into a national outrage because, initially, the boy’s killing was nothing at all in the eyes of the law. He was walking through a white, gated community, wearing a hoodie. Stand your ground! The police held the killer for a few hours, then let him go without charges.
The experts who weighed in on the legal battle essentially noted that, in the absence of any witnesses other than Zimmerman, the prosecution couldn’t prove what had happened, or more to the point, couldn’t convincingly counter-argue his version of events – that he was returning to his car when Trayvon Martin assaulted him and threw him to the ground, forcing him to kill the boy in self-defense. Trayvon was dead; that left him, legally, voiceless and out of luck.
Hmm . . . wasn’t that the case anyway?
The incident blew into a national outrage because, initially, the boy’s killing was nothing at all in the eyes of the law. He was walking through a white, gated community, wearing a hoodie. Stand your ground! The police held the killer for a few hours, then let him go without charges.
"I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II ... It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thought - in short, the psychological factors - are considered as unimportant and secondary ... The general insecurity that goes hand in hand with this results in the sacrifice of the citizen's civil rights to the supposed welfare of the state."
–Albert Einstein, The Military Mentality
I am not a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes people label me that way. Many of my friends get labeled that way, and some of them might be – but some of them clearly aren't. In order to know for sure, we would have to know what is meant by the term.
–Albert Einstein, The Military Mentality
I am not a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes people label me that way. Many of my friends get labeled that way, and some of them might be – but some of them clearly aren't. In order to know for sure, we would have to know what is meant by the term.