Justice for Trayvon

A young teenager named Trayvon Martin went to the store to buy some candy and on his way home was gunned down in the street by someone who claimed that he was protecting himself. Trayvon had a bag of candy. His killer had a gun. A gunman in France wanted to kill children. He caught a young girl by her hair and shot her dead. How sad that we live in a world where things like this can happen. The French murderer claimed that he was getting revenge for Muslim children killed. How warped and how sad. Children are children, the death of one does not bring the other back.

Perhaps it is even more sad for us who live in what we used to consider such a fair and just country. I was a soldier in a war long ago in Vietnam. A just war? I don’t know. I don’t think it was a war that brought any sort of benefit to anyone who was involved in it. Americans died in large numbers and Vietnamese died in even larger numbers. Huge amounts of treasure were expended which might have been used to cure cancer, diabetes or perhaps to create new sources of energy. Or something else. I do know that when I was young and in the Army I had a feeling that most people in my country wanted to be fair and just. I am not sure I feel that way anymore.

Many people seem to vote for those who are hateful. They don’t seem to care that old people and kids don’t have medicine. They took vows never to ever raises taxes, but not vows to help those who are in need. I have to say I don’t like them much. They don’t represent the country I thought I was fighting for and for which many of my friends died. I would prefer to have statesmen, both Democratic and Republican, like we used to have. They never agreed on everything. But they did love our country and its people.

Today 21 states have laws that allow people to kill people if they feel threatened. I felt threatened a week or so ago as I locked up the church and found a homeless person inside. He scared me. But he was just a sad and lonely person looking for a place to rest his head. I am glad I didn’t shoot him. There are many people today in Florida and in a lot of other places who defend the killer of Trayvon whose only crime was to buy some candy and walk home in the rain with his hoody up to cover his head. Where are those who call for justice? In our baptismal vows we pledge to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” That includes Trayvon. Let us pray that justice be done in the state of Florida. And while we are at it, I at least am going to pray for more sane laws regarding the proliferation of guns in this country. I fought for it long ago. I wonder, did the murderer of Trayvon do that?