Sometimes as I witness society\u2019s reaction, my soul is left disturbed.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps like several of you, I have turned off the television after my jaw dropped too many times watching reaction to George Zimmerman being found \u201cnot guilty\u201d of the murder of teen Trayvon Martin.\u00a0 Was he really \u201cnot guilty\u201d?\u00a0 Was he \u201cguilty\u201d?!<\/i>\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t there.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t even in the courtroom.\u00a0 Like positions, however, have not kept others from adamant declarations.<\/p>\n
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The reality is that Trayvon Martin\u2019s tragic death has evolved into an issue of race.\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 The question should be whether or not a criminal act took place.\u00a0 However, declarations of innocence and<\/i> guilt have seemingly since been driven more by ethnicity than on evidence \u2014 or the lack of it.<\/p>\n
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Does skin color matter?<\/p>\n
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Unfortunately, to too many, it does…<\/p>\n
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… it matters to the female convenience store clerk, shown on a YouTube video, who told an African-American pastor, \u201cWe don\u2019t serve your kind\u201d…<\/i><\/p>\n
… it matters to the Illinois, African-American man who beat up an American caucasian because he was so mad at \u201cwhite boys\u201d…<\/p>\n
… it matters to CNN\u2019s Nancy Grace, who during jury deliberations, said \u201c[Hispanic Zimmerman\u2019s been] out on bond, driving through Taco Bell every night, having a churro.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
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It matters to too many whites… too many blacks… too many Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, etc.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it matters.<\/p>\n
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My current sense is that most of the protests after the Zimmerman verdict were peaceful.\u00a0 (Note:\u00a0 the most sensational moments \u2014 however infrequent \u2014 receive the most media attention.)<\/i>\u00a0 Still, seemingly intelligent (and not so intelligent)<\/i> persons say disturbing things…<\/p>\n
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For example, in response to the verdict, an associate professor at the typically esteemed, Ivy League\u2019s University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Religious Studies called God a \u201cwhite racist.\u201d\u00a0 Excuse me, but this professor who is teaching our children,<\/em> is she attempting to divide \u2014 or to <\/p>\n I look forward, friends, to a day when skin color truly does not matter to any of us… when it doesn\u2019t matter to the whites, to the blacks, to every other color God created.\u00a0 I look forward when there exists no justified prejudice \u2014 stemming either from initial ignorance or from retaliatory response.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I look forward to the lion laying down with the lamb… the leopard lying down with the goat… the cow feeding alongside the bear and their young lying down together.\u00a0 I look forward to a day when none of the external \u201cstuff\u201d we so passionately cling to matters, when none of us judge by what we see with our eyes or hear with our ears.\u00a0 I look forward to us being directed more by a Spirit of wisdom and understanding than by skin color and self.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I look forward to that day.\u00a0 For each of us.\u00a0 All of us.\u00a0 Only then will skin color truly not matter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully… always…<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n Sometimes as I witness society\u2019s reaction, my soul is left disturbed. Perhaps like several of you, I have turned off the television after my jaw dropped too many times watching reaction to George Zimmerman being found \u201cnot guilty\u201d of the murder of teen Trayvon Martin.\u00a0 Was he really \u201cnot guilty\u201d?\u00a0 Was he \u201cguilty\u201d?!\u00a0 I … <\/p>\nheal<\/del>\u00a0unite?<\/p>\n