If one must wait for an event to happen, what better place than a blue sun-filled sky and the beautiful Sea of Cortez?
My wife and I are moving to Tennessee and should have left already. A last minute glitch at the Tennessee end has caused a delay, meaning, of course, that disgusting Murphy fellow is still around. We believe, hope, that the delay will only be a few days…he says with eyes looking up to the ceiling while his head nods!
The ‘waiting’ got me to thinking about, well, ‘waiting.’ Some ‘waiting’ is almost delectable in the anticipation it brings…like the arrival of kids, grandchildren, friends, or the big check in the mail and the pizza just ordered for delivery.
Some ‘waiting’ has fearful overtones, like… a car accident? a flight overdue? has a mistake been made? The nerves are edgy.
We ‘waited’ for the Zimmerman verdict. It was likely filled with anticipation, one way of the other. A young teenager, Trayvon Martin, had been killed in a housing project by this fellow, George Zimmerman, a hired neighborhood guard who presumably thought the teenager had no good intent in the gated community. After all, the teenager had on a hood and looked suspicious.
Words were exchanged. An altercation erupted into a killing, Zimmerman claimed he feared for his life and shot the kid. The details came out in a jury trial.
The jury heard the prosecution. The jury heard the defense. The jury heard about the entire episode, with witnesses for the prosecution and witnesses for the defense. The jury was made up of six people whom we must assume were good and honest folks. They listened to both sides of the case and returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by reason of self-defense. Justice was rendered. End of case.
Well, not quite the end of the case! There were demonstrations by angry people who thought justice was not dispensed properly, those who thought the black teenager was murdered, not killed in self-defense. The ugly word, racism, was used by some, whites being favored over the blacks…reaching back through the pages of our history to display something that seems at times so easy to use for the purpose of a few. ‘Waiting’ for a verdict brought us a reminder of a past that should be no more. Should we not have by now thrown away the race cards, gotten away from the skin color thing? After all, we have a black president, elected by the American people.
Those who don’t know about the Zimmerman case, those who might want to know more, can do their research. They can decide within their own hearts and minds how they feel about the ‘not guilty’ verdict in this case.
In the end, only George Zimmerman knows with specificity what really happened on that ill-fated day. I’m sure he will think about it throughout his life. It does not much matter what I think. A young life was lost. That I know. A jury of George Zimmerman’s peers voted unanimously for the ‘not guilty’ verdict. While we should certainly grieve the loss of a seventeen year old, feel great empathy and sympathy for his family and friends, we should also accept the fact that justice was fairly administered.
‘Waiting’ for a free and clear title to a property is not in the same realm as ‘waiting’ for a jury’s verdict on the death of a teenager…but it was there in my heart and mind…
Follow me on twitter.com (@brchitwood)
Main website: http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com
Short Bio sketch: http://www.about.me/brchitwood
My books: http://goo.gl/fuxUA (IAN)
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood