Across the country today, the Page One of newspapers featured George Zimmerman’s arrest.
Reblogged from Think Progress
Tags: trayvon martin news
Time Machine
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
So Barack Obama made some comments about Trayvon Martin that reflect the feelings of pretty much any human being with a functioning set of emotions. The quote that led every one of the dozens of short articles written about it was, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” a line that makes you realize that national leaders have personal feelings apart from politics, and that seeing someone who could have been his kid shot for no good reason probably made Obama just as angry and sad as the rest of us—or you had that response to the line if you were a normal person. If you were a capital-c Conservative pundit who appears on FOX News and bangs Obama at every opportunity out of pure malicious instinct, your eyes rolled back in your head, you started frothing at the mouth, you yelled, “THE PRESIDENT’S TALKING ABOUT RACE! LET’S GET ‘IM! GRRRRRRGHSGHHSSFSA!” and you rage-vomited a little bit. Here’s your chance to cover the Trayvon Martin killing without admitting that it’s a awful tragedy that a black teenager got shot because of his skin color—you can just go after Obama! The crazed anti-Obamans haven’t taken to the airwaves just yet, but you can see what they’re going to say so clearly that I’ve taken the liberty of predicting what the blonde fembots and deceptively clean-cut nutjobs that parade through FOX News will say in the next 48 hours. I hope I’m wrong.
They’ll call him a racist:
“Obama never comments wherever a WHITE 17-year-old gets shot.”They’ll pretend to be even-tempered and objective, in contrast to Obama:
“Here Barack goes again, commenting on a matter before all the facts are in, just like with Henry Louis Gates.”They’ll change the subject to whatever their pet policy obsession is:
“This is just more pandering and emotional manipulation from a president who is looking to push his anti-gun agenda. We need MORE guns, not fewer. Trayvon should have been armed.”They’ll accuse Obama of meddling:
“Why is the president interfering with a local police matter? What about STATES RIGHTS?”
Reblogged from VICE
How Occupy Wall Street Tried To Co-Opt The Million Hoodie March
I participated in the #MillionHoodies march in New York City’s Union Square this past Wednesday, March 21st. When I arrived I noticed a lot less hoodies than I thought I was going to see. I assumed this was simply because of the warm weather. There was still an enormous crowd of people there to deal with the tragedy that was Trayvon Martin.
With chants of “We are the 99%” and signage to that effect as well, I was a little thrown off. I thought the purpose of this march was to bring awareness to the death of a young boy. Soon after the march started confusion was all around. Which way were we marching? Who was leading the charge? After we walked a few blocks members of the Occupy section of the march started running down the street knocking down trash cans. I was told later that some attempted to knock down police barricades and police scooters used to guide the marchers. I immediately became uncomfortable because that’s not what I signed up for. I wanted to speak out against injustice—just causing general destruction wasn’t on my agenda. Soon some Occupiers started chanting “F**k the POLICE,” one young white male wearing skinny jeans and a Justin Bieber haircut started yelling “THIS IS WAR, WE WANT WAR!” To which a hoodie-clad young black adult said “Hey, uh we don’t really want war, why don’t you tone that down. I’m about to graduate college in a few months.” The white male kind of laughed and kept moving forward yelling something else.
At various points in the march, as organizers tried to make statements, they were drowned out by Occupiers chanting whatever they saw fit at the time. It didn’t matter if there was a full-on people’s mic happening, they would attempt to push things their way. I asked Daniel Maree, one of the organizers of the #millionhoodies march what he thought of the co-option by Occupy and their actions.”Honestly,” Maree replied “I feel like this is what happens when these emotions build up and they go unchecked and you know, injustice continues, you get it boiling over like this. I’m just happy nobody got hurt.” And while Occupy did help swell the ranks of marchers, I found their actions unacceptable.
This isn’t simply about emotions. This is a consistent streak within certain sections of Occupy. Their goal isn’t a specific action within our current system. Often they want to make a point, show that they’re movement is doing things. In DC, their goal was to get arrested. In NYC, they seemed less concerned with marching for Trayvon and more concerned with occupying as much space as possible with whatever issue that would gather folks to their cause. Occupying.
When Occupy Wall Street first got the national spotlight they were so worried about the co-option of their message, yet they have no problem co-opting others. A couple of Occupiers recognized me and asked if I noticed some of the nonsense that was happening. I said yes and one of them explained that after this march and two months of working with Occupy, she and her friends no longer wanted to be associated with them.
Every time I attempt to have a conversation about issues within Occupy, I’m told that there are no leaders, and that some people do crazy things, but “that’s not OCCUPY.” I grow weary of actions without consequences and disrespect without anyone being held responsible. Just because a movement did some good doesn’t mean that it’s infallible. Occupy chapters have serious issues and there have been serious discussions about its relations with women and people of color. With incidents like what occurred on Wednesday, I see a clear reason why people of color don’t flock to the movement.
We don’t have enough privilege to carry us through it.
The bolded is so important. OWS is not infallible, perfect, or free from criticism. I’m beyond sick of people vilifying people who dare to criticize the movement. Occupy Wall Street is fundamentally flawed. You can’t keep putting your fingers in your ears and ignore the problems the movement has with racism and sexism.
Reblogged from Loud & Proud
Yes, now is the perfect time to support concealed carry laws that cross state borders.
The original headline seems a little hyperbolic: these senators just don’t care about what’s happening. And that’s bad enough.
Reblogged from Think Progress
In re: George Michael Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in cold blood:
- He followed Trayvon because Trayvon was black.
- He called the police because Trayvon was black.
- He jumped out of his car because Trayvon was black.
- He got into a physical altercation with Trayvon because Trayvon was black.
- He shot Trayvon in the chest because Trayvon was black.
- He told police afterwards that he felt threatened by Trayvon because Trayvon was black.
- The veracity of George Michael Zimmerman’s account of how he came to murder Trayvon Martin wasn’t questioned by police
- because George Michael Zimmerman wasn’t black.
Reblogged from BLOGGING via TYPEWRITER.
Apparently a defendant who claims self-defense doesn’t have to prove it — only say so. Holy shit, indeed.
Reblogged from Mother Jones magazine on Tumblr
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