Happy Friday, All!
Yes, and of course, I have to let you know, T.G.I.F.!
This week has been like a whirlwind with news and issues . . . and events regarding Trayvon’s shooting death by a neighborhood watch captain last week, and the admitted shooter is still not charged with anything. Not only did we find out this week that Whitney Houston’s death was caused by a variety of drugs she had used leading to a heart attack, a girl at FAU – Florida Atlantic University – who had organized a bus trip to Sanford, FL in support of Trayvon’s cause went ballistic in a class this week and threatened to kill fellow students and the professor. She was expelled from the University after being arrested and tasered.
I, too, found myself caught up in an emotional tail spin when listening to the “911” calls on the news and made an assumption that Zimmerman had said, “Those n—-ers always get away!” My mind was already conditioned to believe that he MUST have said that, since the newscasts had bleeped it out! I had even gone as far as to have posted something on Facebook on a friend’s link that was addressing the “Fear Factor” as the cause of this catastrophic event that has led to the temporary resignation of Sanford, Florida’s chief of police and a visit and rally with long time civil rights activist, Al Sharpton, coming to the small town in Florida. A friend of that friend also posted on Facebook that he had listened to the recordings and the word that Zimmerman used at that point in the “911” call was … excuse me … but …. assholes. I stood to be corrected.
It is just an example of what we as African American men have nearly been conditioned to “think” we or others have been called in the midst of such a heated event. While the friend of my Facebook friend did correct me, he also went on to say that Zimmerman had used another racial slur later on in the conversation. Yet, I had to distance myself from the research of this dialogue and not look any further. I, too, had been caught up to the point that I imagined things. Perhaps, Zimmerman suffered the same but his actions were much more far reaching than an incorrect Facebook post. May we somehow work through this so that truth, justice and the “American Way’ may be achieved … soon.
As we continue into the beginnings of Spring, I seek to calm my spirit and my soul and search for deeper understanding of the human condition.
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 