Michael Dunn, Jordan Davis, and what Florida represents

America is a racist country. Its foundation is built on racism. It seems to me that people here like pretending, but we are not fooling the rest of the world. This is the 'greatest country in the world" but for the overwhelming, hideous racism that is built into its very fabric. It's in the air we breath and the food we eat. It hangs like a pall over everything we say and do. And we pretend it isn't there. It is a poison--but its not the kind of poison that kills outright on most occasions. It's the kind of poison that makes us sick and mean. It stunts our growth as human beings. It keeps us from being all that we could be.

Michael Dunn killed Jordan Davis in cold blood. Michael Dunn shot into a car of unarmed black teenagers and was trying with his heart and soul to kill them. You do not shoot into a car full of people for any reason other than to kill. It really is that simple and it would be that simple in any place other than America. Let me correct that: I'm sure there is some shit-hole country where things like this happen. But I am just as sure that that country does not go around proclaiming itself to be "the greatest country in the world". In Africa, for example, they are killing gay people. In India, they are raping women like it's a sport with a orgasmic prize at the end. Russia has lost its fucking mind. While these countries are, likely proud of themselves, they do not go around policing other countries and they do not claim to be the "best" country--as if such a thing exists.

America has a racial problem that it will not face, black president or not. In America, something beautiful and beneficial to the world can be utterly destroyed because the creator of that beautiful thing is not the right color. People ignore this here. They pretend like they don't see it. Anyone that speaks about it is a "race baiter" or a whiner. In America, we shame people out of saying anything about the injustices they face because of the color of their skin.

A man shoots into a car of unarmed children and is not convicted of murder in Florida (Michael Dunn). A man stalks and kills a seventeen year old boy and becomes a "celebrity" in America (George Zimmerman). Its an unspoken sickness that we have, and it goes wholly unacknowledged for the absolute plague that it is.

Like a good Bugs Bunny cartoon, it's OPEN SEASON on young black males in Florida. The Stand Your Ground Law that Florida has only become slightly ashamed of isn't used in trials--but it is read to the jury and, from my limited understanding of the law it reads something like this:

You can pick a fight with a person. If said person says anything or does anything you don't like, you can kill them.

This is, of course, not how its read from a legal standpoint, but it is how it IS.

I don't like my neighbor. I go over to his house and start a fight with him while carrying a concealed weapon. He shouts to loudly at me or gives me any reason at all to claim that he was aggressive toward me and I blow his brains out and go home and eat Cheerios until the cops come and give me a cursory tour of the police station. Of course, there will be a trial and I'll have to lie about his brandishing his fists and such, but, in the end, I'll likely go home afterwards, especially if the dead man's a black man and I'm not one.

On what planet do you shoot into a car full of unarmed people, kill one of them, and not get convicted of murder? What was confusing for this jury? The fact that the murderer said the victim had a gun, but no gun was found? The fact that Jordan Davis refused to turn his 'thug' music down and that's just rude? Are we killing people for being rude now? Because rude, to me, is going over there and bothering Davis about his music in the first place. Don't like the music you have to listen to for the five minutes it takes you to get gas? Leave. Life is simple like that.

There will be a retrial on this one, because Zimmerman's photo ops are an embarrassment and there just HAS to be. However, what worries me is that there has to be a retrial in the first place on such a case as this. Everything else they convicted him for means nothing to me. What means something is the fact that Jordan Davis had a life and was a person. Michael Dunn took his life. The point that needs to be made here is that Jordan Davis' life had MEANING. And to take his life is a crime worthy of punishment.

Florida's Stand Your Ground Law is unjust and an invitation to murder. As it was used in this trial, it was a invitation to confuse the average citizen into thinking that had Dunn armed with a gun felt his life was in danger in the altercation he started, he had a right not to back down and could 'defend' himself.

Anyone else tired of hypocrisy and double standards? Do I even have to question what would have happened if the color line had been reversed? How speedy the trial? How deep the hole under the prison?

No.

I don't.

'Murrica.

Shameless, in bitter reality...

...Land of the fee. Home of the slave.

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My sexy Tre Melvin made a statement last night about having come out as bisexual, how positive most of his feedback was, and how surprising that was to him. He also made a statement about something someone said that wasn't so positive. As a matter of fact, it was rather vicious. It was something about not being able to picture him -- I'm going to put it the nice way-- sexually with another man.

Somewhere in there, there was the thought that he was somehow less of  a man because he liked other men--which is absolute bullshit, but I'm not even going there right now. I'm not going to repeat his thoughts on the subject either because you should really find his Youtube channel and get to know his wonderfulness. But I have to say that I feel him in that non-personal way that you feel somebody that thinks like you.

Here's a big:

"Bitch, mind your business." 

...from me to  her though. Heartfelt and sincere. 

__________

It's the bane of human existence that so many people have such a hard time doing just that. Mr. Dunn couldn't mind his business. Mr. Zimmerman couldn't mind his business. And it's never for the right things.

The foster care system is complete shit, for example. Kids are being abused, molested, and lost. In Florida, they've found the remains of fifty five bodies--children's bodies--between the ages of nine and under eighteen. The Arthur G. Dozier School For Boys existed for a hundred plus years and the people that ran it killed those children and many more who died of mysterious causes. The bodies that have been found are on no record. Nobody knows who these kids are. The school is notorious for allegations of brutal beatings, rapes, and murders that span a century of agony. 

This nightmare place was just closed in 2011. No one has paid any prices for the horrible things that went on there. 

This is some business that bears minding.  It bore minding twenty years ago, fifty years ago, and back to it's opening. 

Why is it that the people that ran this kind of shit hole, that raped and tortured nine-year-old kids because they could...

...the kind of business that rarely gets minded? 

...but loud 'thug' music, an adult's sexual preference for another adult, the color of a person's skin...

Judge 'em, and if you're feeling froggy, possibly kill 'em all.

Florida. Fix. Your. Shit. 

Your priorities are all fucked up.

Eugh.