I am not going to regurgitate the emotions of a considerable portion of this country on what some of us believe should have happened to George Zimmerman. In my opinion, many of us formed our opinion long before the jury came back with their verdict.
I do believe that Mr. Zimmerman was in fear of his life. But he was in fear of his life because a young man felt threatened...threatened enough to put his hands up and defend himself. Unfortunately, it cost him his life. I believe that Mr. Zimmerman didn't expect for this young man to get the best of him and I also believe that he thought he had the situation in control because he was armed...something that he technically shouldn't have been given the circumstance.
We can say that this is about race, but after letting my emotions calm down just a bit, I realize that this isn't as much about race as it is about someone who took the law into his own hands. He exercised poor judgement...very poor judgement. Enough poor judgement that exacerbates the fact that he had no business carrying a gun in the first place.
Right now, I just want to send up prayers for the Martin family. I also want to send up prayers for George Zimmerman. You see, only he knows why he acted the way he did. We don't despite what we want to believe. And only he will have to live with that...not us.
He will remember that fateful night for the rest of his life. I also pray that we find peace around this. I pray that we teach our sons how the world really is and how we have to carry ourselves...and that is with pride and dignity. Arrogance isn't desired nor required.
Hatred has never spawned anything except more hatred, and at some point, it has to end.
That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.
~ J.L. Whitehead
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