I hope everybody is having a great Sunday afternoon. I am sitting here in my office reading an article about ESPN’S Steven Smith and Arsenio Hall having a conversation last night on TV about what Kobe Bryant said about Travyon Martin. Interestingly enough Mr. Smith stated that Kobe was right on point and Arsenio agreed. I applaud you both for your common sense. Having said that the Travyon Martin case is a tragedy but according to the court one brought on partially by Trayvons own actions, therefore there is no guilt to place for a man, any man defending himself, or perceives he is defending himself. I have read quite a bit about this case and George Zimmerman has come out different ways in each article, what I do know is his actions since the shooting are not above board but that does not make him any more guilty of the original tragic events.
My own beliefs are simple, every man, woman and child in this country has a right to protect themselves appropriately from those that may want to harm them, to include deadly force if needed. We can all stand by after and judge them but we all would agree if threatened we have the right to self defense. I know that the founding fathers had the common sense to allow each citizen to bear arms for just this reason, against the government itself if necessary. I also know, I have been on a battlefield and watched with my own eyes the deaths of good men and been helpless to react. It is a sad day for us as Americans when we cannot agree that there is evil in the world and we need to defend ourselves from time to time.
I personally do not own a gun but I am glad that should I get to a point where if I felt to defend myself or my family it is an option. I also do not live with the personal belief that any particular race is good or bad by definition but men make that choice for themselves, I unfortunately am not joined by everyone in that belief. I have no idea what happened to Trayvon martin and George Zimmerman but if Mr. Zimmerman felt threatened and decided that deadly force was the only answer, I will respect that choice until he has been proven wrong. A court supported this decision and the world now must try and make sense of Trayvons death. If Trayvon was innocent and Mr. Zimmerman acted rashly, I believe God will take care of that but maybe we should do something about our culture that creates such fear that this mistake can be made. If not I think we all agree we would protect ourselves and our families to the best of our abilities.
Arsenio and Mr. Smith both have a right to state their opinions as does Mr. Bryant and in this case they are right, Maybe we should be less apt to jump to conclusions and see each step so our opinions and our conclusions are the best they can be with what we know. I weep for our society that we cannot find a single piece of common ground that race becomes the reason for anything we do. Our race is nothing more than skin color, like Martin Luther King once said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”