Response to Trayvon Martin Case

The tragedy of the Trayvon Martin case has been gaining both national and international recognition and awareness. Millions are up in outrage about the lack of arrest of the murderer George Zimmerman. Petitions are being spread throughout the country for his arrest. There are even bounties from the "New Black Panthers" for his capture, reaching into $10,000. Many citizens are participating in marches across the country, many donning the hoodie as the symbol of Trayvon's death. There have been marches in Washington, Florida, Philly, Arizona... all around the country. But this case spreads out beyond the public. many statements have been made by celebrities, politicians, and big public figures. Obama himself has commented on the incident, saying he can only imagine what the family is going through and how if he had a son, he would look just like Trayvon. It has also reached the national sports-level. Many NBA players are clamoring for justice in the case, taking photos in hoodies and scribing "RIP Trayvon Martin" and "We want justice" scrawled on their sneakers during games. This case must be brought to just to justice.

What really happened: Trayvon Martin

In today's society, apparently wearing a hood up is cause for violence. Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old, 150 pound African American, was shot and killed on February 26th in Sanford, Florida. He was walking back to his Father's girlfriend's house during a break in the NBA game he was watching with his younger brother. Martin had just gone out to get an Iced-Tea and a bag of Skittles. While walking down the street of the gated community he was in, a man (George Zimmerman), began to follow him. He also was making calls to the police saying Martin was "just walking around looking about" in the rain, and that "This guy looks like he is up to no good. He is on drugs or something." The police told him that maintaining pursuit of Martin was not necessary, to which Zimmerman replied okay. Moments later, neighbors reported hearing screams of a young, whining voice yelling for help which was immediately silenced by a single report of a 9mm firearm in Zimmerman's possession. A number of witnesses reported seeing Zimmerman pinning down Martin. When the police arrived, Zimmerman was questioned and released with little care or even a toxicity test. Martin's body was taken in as "John Doe" and was given a toxicity test that turned up negative for everything. Besides and injustice, and the public clamoring for arrest, nothing else has happened as of yet.

Get rid of the "R" word.

In the past decade or so, the word retarded has started to take a negative meaning. The word is supposed to describe a mental setback or difficulty, but in today's society it has come to mean someone stupid or incapable of doing high-level activities. This could not be more far from the truth. Just because a kid has a learning disability, does not make him any less of a person. It does not make them any less human.
Using the word to describe someone who has a mentally disability is perfectly okay, and that is what the word is meant to be used for. It is when the word starts to be used in a derogatory fashion to describe someone who is supposedly "dumb" or "stupid" that the word picks up a negative meaning. This is extremely offensive and just flat out wrong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObkxEXKoklI

 We need to stop saying the word retarded, as a society. There have been many movements, both in legal action and societal action to stop this. The word retarded is no longer legally able to be used in healthcare, federal education, and labor. Also, there have been movements and organizations devoted to this effort, such as http://therword.org/. They have organized against this hateful word, and encourage others to do the same. Do the same: spread the word to not say the word.