Post-Verdict

My feelings are too jumbled to give a coherent response to the Zimmerman verdict and all that it says about our justice system, our culture and our sense of community. I’m too overwhelmed to add my voice to the conversation.  But I can pass on some words from someone who said it better than I ever could.  Ta-Nehisi Coates has written the most valuable article that I have read about this situation.

Here is just a brief excerpt of “Trayvon Martin and the Irony of American Justice“:

It is painful to say this: Trayvon Martin is not a miscarriage of American justice, but American justice itself. This is not our system malfunctioning. It is our system working as intended. To expect our juries, our schools, our police to single-handedly correct for this, is to look at the final play in the final minute of the final quarter and wonder why we couldn’t come back from twenty-four down.

To paraphrase a great man — We are what our record says we are. How can we sensibly expect different?

You should still take the time to read the whole article. It is important.