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| Photo by Linda Gardner-(center) Raymond House |
Last year when they came to support the
stop the violence rally here in East St. Louis, we the friends of Tracy Martin,
presented him and Sybrina with a plaque in memory of their son Trayvon. Inscribed
on the plaque was our pledge to them and our prayer for them. As written it reads “We stand with you, we support your fight for justice and we pray that
God continues to be your strength”. That
was our promise then and in the overcast of the verdict, it remains the same. We
stand and support them in their continued fight for justice.
Similar to
the nationwide marches that led the state of Florida to charge George Zimmerman
with second degree murder last year, there are nationwide marches now to have
charges filed against him in federal court. Today is a national call to action
and people all over the country have answered by marching, because we want an
investigation to determine if Trayvon Martin’s civil rights were violated. George
Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, lied about the circumstances surrounding it,
never explained it court and was still found not guilty by the jury. There is a
grave injustice in that!
In the
community of common sense we don’t believe for a minute that Trayvon was
peering through windows and looking at houses, just because Mr. Zimmerman said
he was. Who does that when walking from
the store in the rain while talking on the phone in a neighborhood where they
have business to be? In the community of common sense we do believe that George
Zimmerman created reasons to report Trayvon Martin to the police, to portray
him as a suspicious person. What really
made him suspicious? In the community of
common sense we do believe that if Trayvon Martin were white George Zimmerman would
have gone on to Target instead of making him a target. He would have stayed seated in his vehicle and
we would not have had to question whether he was standing his ground or
not.
Fifty years
ago, a march driven by the force of a quarter of a million people traveled to
Washington D.C. to fight for civil rights and against this kind of
discrimination. Because of that march and the laws passed behind it,
forty-five years later an African American man was able to walk into the White
House, not as a servant, but as the president of the United States, the highest
office of power in the world. As far as he has come as an African American man
to get there, if an African American boy isn’t able to walk a few yards to a
house in neighborhood he’s visiting, without being discriminated against and being killed, then we as a people still have a long way to go. Thank you