TRAYVON MARTIN - EVERYTHING IS NOT ABOUT RACE

I am not one to shy away from controversy especially when it affects the wonderful country that I love and would gladly lay my life down for. All of the information is not out about the shooting of Trayvon Martin and when and if it does it is likely going to be found that there was fault on all sides and that both were victims yet the tragedy is that a seventeen year old man is dead.

Whenever something like this happens especially,(I am going to get very frank now so be fore warned), when it involves a black person and another person of another ethnicity it IS NOT ALWAYS race related. Zimmerman was over zealous in his actions but his history does not show him a racist. The entire country has erupted over this incident and it is on the verge of becoming a race war.

Yet last Saturday a white college student at Mississippi State was killed by three black suspects and it is not considered news. In the same week in Chicago 51 murders were committed in what is called black on black crime and again it is not considered news. ANY young man or woman killed in our country is a tragedy but it is only when it can be turned into a race fight that it becomes news, investigated and people rise up to bring attention to it.

I grew up in the sixties. I saw Jim Crow laws enforced first hand and even as a child it disgusted me. I saw race riots first hand and watched in awe as Martin Luther King fought peacefully to change our Nation for the better. Yet I believe that if he were alive today he would be saddened to see EVERYTHING turned into an argument about race and many of the very things he fought for being reversed for political correctness or political gain.

We criticize the President and we are called racists. In many areas of our country people are again looking upon one another with suspicion simply because it is being encouraged in ways that up until the past few years had been long gone in our country. We are a country where a person is judged by their character and their accomplishments and NOT by the color of their skin. But when I watch ridiculous threats and riots taking place and a rush to judgement as has happened in the Martin killing it sickens me because we as a people have grown past looking at each other by ethnicity and it is now being used almost solely as a political football.

We are not a country of hyphenated Americans. My mothers family immigrated to The United States from Italy and she was the only child of nine born in America so I am only one generation away from Italy but I AM NOT AN ITALIAN - AMERICAN, I AM AN AMERICAN PERIOD! Sure it is good to remember our heritage and family back grounds but separating people based upon where their parentage or where ancestors came from does nothing more than spotlight our differences rather than our common bond of being citizens of the greatest country in the world and a FREE people.

As Americans we should hide our selves in shame if we look upon ANY fellow countryman or woman and see the color of their skin first rather than seeing ONLY a fellow American. We as a people will NEVER get past race unless we can look upon one another without seeing color or ethnicity but see a fellow American ONLY!

I could care less about what color Barack Obama is I disagree with him because of what he does, NOT his ethnic back ground. I am proud that our country was finally able to elect a black President, I just believe HE is wrong for the country because of policy not color and anyone who disagrees with him for the reason of race is a idiot!

Yes the killing of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy but so are the deaths of soldiers who die defending our freedom. So are the deaths of the thousands who die in traffic accidents every year. The hundreds of murders that take place by senseless crimes are tragedies but no one protests these deaths nor calls for Congressional hearings or create a firestorm of controversy.

An irresponsible media seeking sensational headlines exploded this tragedy in Sanford, Florida by not telling the whole story and creating a firestorm for the sole purpose of ratings and selling papers. Using catch words and phrases that they knew would spark controversy succeeded in sensationalising a story which has now completely forgotten what has actually happened.

The tragedy here is that a young man is dead. A father who was looking after his neighbors and may or may not have over reacted has ruined his life by having to live with what has happened and the results of a media seeking sensationalism. If charges are brought and he is found guilty in this tragedy then a family will be tragically destroyed along with the family of the dead young man.

But now because it has been turned into a race problem the tragic consequences for everyone involved are forgotten and commentators, media types, well known camera hounds and celebrities are using it as a means of gaining yet another fifteen minutes of fame by crying racism.

Once again the world looks on America as a racist country and once again Americans who are not racists are seen that way by the masses. Are there real racists? Yes unfortunately but they are a small minority of idiots whose stupidity is not worth talking about. The vast majority of Americans live each day among all ethnicity's and pay no attention to color or race but only to the individual as a person and THAT is who we are as Americans. A hodge podge of ethnic back grounds with family heritage that differs from person to person. But we all have one thing in common. WE ARE AMERICANS and cherish freedom and liberty and THAT has nothing to do with race or racism and that should be all we see when we look at one another!

Ken Taylor