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Friday, March 23, 2012

Justice, Not Revenge

Many are the calls for vengeance againt George Zimmerman, the "neighborhood watch vigilante" who is said to have stalked and in cold blood murdered Treyvon Martin, an innocent African American boy whose only "crime" was being black in public, who was carrying nothing more dangerous than candy and a soft drink.

I understand the anger against Zimmerman. Although I am an absolute pacifist, nevertheless this horrible deed enrages me, and I personally wouldn't mind pulling out every one of his toenails and fingernails with rusty tweezers.

But what I tell myself and remind others is that this would not end the horror.

We must bear in mind that white bigots think Zimmerman was entirely justified. Indeed, I've seen some horrifyingly disgusting blogs where white racists had all sorts of reasons why Treyvon Martin "had it coming".

And no less than schlock talk show host Gerald Michael Riviera, who goes by "Geraldo Rivera", has said that Treyvon bears responsibility for his own death because he was wearing a hoodie. Come again, Jerry? Do you also think that a pretty woman in a miniskirt bears responsibility for being brutally raped?

Therefore, if Zimmerman is revenged upon, the white bigots will see this as further proof that they must fight back against the "liberal media" and this "black Muslim foreign-born president". It will not make them understand that Zimmerman committed a horrible crime against an innocent human being. Rather, it will lead them to conclude that they must do exactly what Zimmerman did - take weapons in hand and go out and shoot liberals and minorities. These people already believe there is a war between them and the flood of dark-skinned people, gays and lesbians, and non-evangelical Christian, as well as their weak-kneeds white liberal supporters.
Revenge upon George Zimmerman would only exacerbate this war.

What is more, the ultra-rich plutocrats who are using their proxies in the Tea Party and the Republican Party to destroy our civil rights and take every penny they can from us and put it in their fat bank accounts - these plutocrats are thrilledto see us, the plebeians, divided amongst ourselves. When we engage in class war, we are doing their work for them! We are making it easier for the plutocrats to take over and destroy the world in their quest for more fortunes.

Instead of crying for vengeance against George Zimmerman, he should be treated strictly within the bounds of law and justice. He should be arrested, charged, and given an impeccably fair trial. If he has a legitimate alibi for murdering this boy, he should be given every chance to voice it. If he starts spouting bigotry against everyone but his bigoted friends, let him.

We need to show Zimmerman and all of his bigoted friends that justice comes not from violence but from truth, integrity, and dispassionate fairness. And we need to show the ultra-rich plutocrats who are out to destroy the structures of law and justice that they, too, could be found guilty of crimes against humanity.

A deeper tragedy is that this kind of bigotry happens all the time. I used to date a beautiful black woman, and I not just saw, but felt, simply from being in her company, being clearly her romantic partner, frequent glares, nasty comments, and outright maltreatment aimed at her, and at me for being involved with her. Every African-descended resident of the United States, and people of other minority descent too, has experienced this kind of bigotry nearly every day. And the bigots get away with it because the system allows it.

The system has, thus far, protected George Zimmerman. He goes free, while his victim is dead and buried. The police haven't done a thing - because, as sadly is so often the case, police departments are bastions of bigotry, pulling over African-American drivers for no reason other than their color, and charging them, and beating the merdeout of minorities under arrest while letting whites get the cushy treatment.

What we who care about Treyvon need to do is keep pointing out that this is not a tragic but isolated event - that it happens every day in every city in the United States, and many cities in Europe and elsewhere. And that it will not stop until we all say with one voice that bigotry must stop, the system must be once again a mechanism for ensuring that all the children of G-d are treated with courtesy and respect, and that those who fail to do so will be prosecuted. This is the answer to violent bigotry: not calls for vengeance but calls for justice.

INFORMATION ON JAMES DAVID AUDLIN'S BOOKS - Many released just weeks ago, and more coming soon!


<><><><> HARDCOVER EDITIONS:

James David Audlin’s novel "Rats Live on no Evil Star" and the nonfiction book "The Circle of Life" (the complete edition, unlike the shortened version published six years ago) are available in HARDCOVER at:

www.lulu.com/spotlight/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> E-BOOK EDITIONS:

Sixteen of his books are now available in E-Book format (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at this website. L'un de ses romans est disponible en français, y una de sus novelas está disponible en español.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> PAPERBACK EDITIONS:

The same sixteen books are available in uniform, meticulously copyedited and designed, softcover editions as follows. (Unfortunately, there is no single link for the following.)

Across the Silence: Poems of James David Audlin www.createspace.com/3794120
The Circle of Life: A Memoir of Traditional Native American Teachings www.createspace.com/3803888
Rats Live on no Evil Star (novel) www.createspace.com/3787733
Palindrome (ROMAN EN FRANÇAIS) www.createspace.com/3788729
Palíndromo (NOVELA EN ESPAÑOL) www.createspace.com/3788975
All You Need (novel) www.createspace.com/3789645
Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume I: The Voice of Day www.createspace.com/3791278
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume II: The Wings of the Morning www.createspace.com/3791399
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume III: The Productions of Time www.createspace.com/3791576
Seven Novels Of The Last Days Volume IV: A Mirror Filled With Light www.createspace.com/3792090
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume V: A Stitch in Time www.createspace.com/3792618
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume VI: The Stars Blindly Run www.createspace.com/3793296
Lives of the Saints (stories) www.createspace.com/3793905
Mooreeffoc: Stories from This World (stories) www.createspace.com/3790692
The Other: Stories from Elsewhere (stories) www.createspace.com/3795526

7 comments:

  1. taking it one step further, the judicial system is incapable of addressing the underlying problems in such cases, so in a very real sense there will never be justice for Trayvon, as there was no justice for the other victims of racism in his home town or elsewhere. Our species is biologically wired to fear, jealousy, hate and violence, We may have Green Lantern daydreams, but we have Lord of the Flies mornings....

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  2. Quite so. Put another way, the problem is systemic.... hmm... never mind; let me just add a few comments to the rant above... thank you, my friend!

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  3. You get an A- for social justice themed rhetoric, but the spelling is shit ;-) as u got lost and buried the i......

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  4. Interesting post. You might like this quote on truth. http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/truth.html

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  5. Gack, a spelling nerd is on his way to fix the errors! Thanks, Merwyn!

    Carole - I'll take a look, after I send the spelling nerd on his way....

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  6. There... I "brued" that misspelling of "buried".... Now, Teach, what do I have to do to get rid of that shameful A-????

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  7. Carole, far be it from me to quibble with the great Oscar Wilde (curiously, just two days ago I picked up a collection of his stories for free at a mission in the next town), but the truth is simple and pure, but so simple and pure that it does not lend itself to words, and moreover we are unable to hear it. Think of Shakespeare...

    How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
    Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
    Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
    Become the touches of sweet harmony.
    Sit, Pamela. Look how the floor of heaven
    Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
    There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
    But in his motion like an angel sings,
    Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
    Such harmony is in immortal souls;
    But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
    Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

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