Lessons in the wake of tragedy

Dear Sir,

I felt very strongly about the Trayvon Martin case in America and my thoughts resonated here with Mark Nash, president of CURB, about lessons we could learn.

At the same time I was reading his remarks on the beach, I had already penned my story, which is in sync with his. I support the efforts to end racism and recognize the dignity of all people.

I live in Long Island, New York and I am an annual visitor (like the Longtail bird) to your beautiful island, along with my husband, and we love it.

None of us were there on that fateful winter night last year when a young man died at the hands of another. We weren’t the last persons to speak with him on his cellphone, but if we can rely on media reports to be accurate, this event has made many of us very angry.

Our sense of injustice for the root cause is heightened. While the trial was about one element, as a lawyer said, court cases are about proving one element of a case and not necessarily about proving the truth, the lessons we can learn go far deeper.

For Trayvon not to have died in vain, we need better training for auxiliary

 Neighbourhood watch volunteers. Aggressive and hostile pursuits only aggravate a situations. As Rachel Jeantel, Trayvon’s friend, suggested so eloquently on The Piers Morgan Show, the proper way to approach someone in your watch, is to ask that person if they need help or are lost. This way, even if a person was contemplating committing a crime, they are put on notice. George wasn’t even a cop.

The police told him not to pursue Trayvon, after he called them and that they were on their way. Instead, George took the law into his own hands. Was George racial profiling? Was he prejudiced because Trayvon wore a hoodie? Or self-righteous dominion over what he thought was a punk kid up to no good? Only George knows in his heart what his intent or motives were that night.

In the end, I believe the teen acted on his survival instinct, felt harassed and stalked, maybe a little macho, feeling his oats—and because he was essentially scared—walloped the stalker. I believe he felt endangered by George’s behaviour and took action. So this was what the trial was about: Whether George shot him dead in self defence.

It’s just one small element of a larger event. And Trayvon isn’t there to defend himself.

Young people sport different dress, cultural expressions, don’t communicate like adults and often feel disenfranchised, but all kids need to be taught how to act with any law enforcement figure and be able to communicate properly and use their self esteem constructively. They should be able to ask a police officer or auxiliary volunteer if something is wrong when they feel stared at or followed. It would be very helpful for police to have open dialogues with those in their communities of jurisdiction to prevent misunderstandings that lead to these unfortunate incidents. If matters are brought to the forefront before a tragedy occurs, we might all be happier — and innocent people — alive.

On a higher intellectual and perhaps even spiritual level, George has a far greater sentence despite his acquittal. We automatically assume that hired guns among us—the law enforcers—are always right. That type of arrogance and self defence by giving an offence, ultimately led to the physical altercation that led to Trayvon’s death, by George’s chasing after him after police said not to. George’s believing his own life in danger led him to shot Trayvon dead. That’s what he got off all charges on. Let’s face the obvious: If he hadn’t stalked that young man, if he let the police come and inquire of Trayvon why he was walking down a street with a bag of candy in his hand and no weapon, off to his father’s fiancee’s home, this would not have happened.

The underlying root cause of this case did not go on trial. It evaded the law with unbelievable ease. It couldn’t be seen or proven, but it was in court that day.

A far greater fear is our inability to face our own racism and pre-judgments about black kids wearing hoodies at night. We refuse to face it and that’s what we are most angry — and collectively guilty—about. We would do Trayvon a great service to his memory and other persons — if we face our fears and provide better understanding, dialoguing and training for those on both sides of the law. 

Gloria J. Schramm

Long Island, New York