The Zimmerman Case
The Zimmerman Case has had its verdict yesterday and I would have written then, but I was busy building my thoughts. What I should cover first is why the Zimmerman Case is significant. It is not significant because of race, or the right to defend one's self. In defense of my position on the race aspect, the media has tried to portray Zimmerman as white, when, in fact he is Hispanic or as my wife is adamant about, Latino. Apparently, you can't call Hispanics Hispanics any more and you have to call them Latino. Ok, sure fine I don't really care what people want to be called; it has no bearing to me on the individual other than personal preference. So, if the media is not really sure what race Zimmerman is, the issue of race becomes moot, but it does show that there are other motivations in doing so as someone's race is a pretty big way of describing an individual to the public. I suspect that this has more to do with the Immigration Issue than race despite the media is trying to make be seen that way. Showing Latinos as white would go a long way toward naturalizing immigrants in the public's mind. The right to defend one's self, is not an issue either, in that it is a personal responsibility to do so. Following someone does not justify aggression if that person is acting within a prescribed and legal role, in this case, as a member of the community watch. They say Martin was just going out for Skittles and some sort of drink and that was all he had on him when he was being followed out of the area by Zimmerman. If he was going out to get these items, then why did he have these items on him when he was leaving. This seems suspect to me, but actually has little bearing on the point I am trying to make with this.
The issue here isn't if Zimmerman should have been arrested, he should not have. It is also not if Zimmerman had the legal right to shoot and kill Martin; he did. Martin acted as the aggressor and forced Zimmerman in to a physical battle, and Zimmerman, in