Injustice is injustice is injustice is injustice is injustice. We cannot sit this fight out.
#JusticeForTrayvon
I was enjoying a theatre production with one of my good friends. During intermission, we joined other excited theatre-goers eager to stretch their legs yet excited to finish the rest of the show. It was an exciting night. Directors, writers, actors, and singers from the elite black theatre scene in Chicago unexpectedly ran into each other and the instagramming began. We wanted to remember that night. We shared our previous successes, congratulated one another, networked, and spoke of future projects. That night we felt alive, talented, beautiful, and bright. I felt alive talented beautiful and bright.
“Ok now take a picture with my phone…”
“Oh oh let’s take a picture with my phone…”
And then the verdict came in.
Not guilty.
Ever since then I’ve felt defeated, hurt, stained, and dim. Then I got angry. Then I believed in the power of change and became hopeful. This is a fight we cannot sit out.
“We have to do something,” my colleague said over and over. “We have to do something.”
We are not sure yet, but we are doing something. Our network is too strong and our hearts are too heavy to return back to life as usual. We just gave killing our kids the green light.
I am uncomfortable with anybody who is NOT uncomfortable with this form of injustice.
Remember those “for colored only signs” OUR PARENTS, not the enslaved africans of the 19th century, but OUR PARENTS has to adhere to? What if someone said “It’s just a water fountain. There’s nothing you can do. I don’t know why you’re surprised”
Remember that whole right to vote thing? What if someone said “There’s nothing we can do?”
Remember that whole “hang a black man by his neck thing?” What if someone said, “I don’t see why y’all mad?”
The trending topic will fade. The next big story will happen. Some have already moved on to Justin’s latest single but I will not stop seeking #JusticeForTrayvonMartin
Stand Your Ground – My poem for Trayvon
The Lisa B. Experience 
I am uncomfortable with the “stand your ground self defense law as it exists in Florida and sixteen other States but not with the verdict in the Trever Martin case. My heart goes out to his family, friends and those who feel it was an injustice.
As a criminal defense lawyer for over thirty years I feel I can speak with authority. In this case Mr. Zimmerman did not have to do everything in his power to avoid an unarmed man who was or had the potential to inflict serious bodily harm to him. He did not have to run away, shoot in the air, show that he had a weapon, batter him with the weapon. He could have done things other than shoot him but he didn’t have to by law.
The solution is not to criticize the jury but to change the law.
John D. Breclaw
312-231-0242
Reblogged this on thelisabexperience.