Get Out That Measuring Tape

I have a couple of things to say about the murder of Trayvon Martin. Bear with me.

When I was growing up it was understood that anyone who was a good, responsible person and had been to war, any of them, and had seen combat didn’t really talk about it with civilians. They just didn’t. The same was true of cops. The cops I knew didn’t run around bragging about what they did for a living. Especially if they’d had to use their weapon.

My thoughts on guns are mixed for that reason. My father was a dispatcher. He bought his own sidearm. He had to draw it once when he was threatened. He never had to use it. Special circumstances, sure. He worked for the police force. But he had the right to buy that gun.

Gun rights organizations started, I think, with some good intentions. What I see, and what I have seen, is that the people who yack the loudest about their right to bear arms and brag about their arsenals are like the ex-military or ex-cops who brag the loudest about what action they saw and how many bullets they fired.

I don’t trust a single damn one of them.

The responsible gun owners I know- hunters and not- these things are not an extension or stand-in for a manhood. They might love the lines and the sheen, they appreciate the weapon’s ability to get a job done, but they don’t shove it in someone’s face and yell, “LOOKIT IT!!!”

We need to take a good, long look at what the more liberal (That’s right. Look it up) gun laws have allowed and ask ourselves if any freaking yahoo on our streets should be allowed to shoot without a thought for what that wreaks.

This brings me to my second thought.

When do we stop gunning down young, black men? As a nation. Do we really still think that they’re out to sully our blonde, white daughters? When President Obama was elected I honestly had about 24 hours of fantasy when I thought we were moving past all of this. If Michelle Obama had been elected would we still have these issues as a nation? I’ve looked at our son over the past several days, and I’ve found that I’m grateful that he’s an obvious blue-eyed white boy and not a mystery as his sister and I appear to some people. And for all intents and purposes- we’re white. I still caught grief as a teen.

I can’t understand what a person of color goes through living day to day in this country. What I can understand is this-

Trayvon Martin had parents who loved him. He had a mother who most likely wanted to rip out her own heart from the pain of learning her boy was gone. His father will never watch his boy turn into a good man. His family will never be able to figure out just WHY this had to happen.

Because it doesn’t make a single goddamn bit of sense.

There are enough things to worry about in the world without manufacturing problems. George Zimmerman manufactured himself a problem just so he could whip out his fake member and gun down a black boy. Stand your ground. Even as they run away.

He wasn’t in a world of shit for it, but he is now.

Look around you. Stop accepting this shit as normal. Stop being complacent, and above all, raise your kids to understand that ALL of them matter.

It’s 20-goddamn-12.

Prove it.