Going beneath the blather of division

Common Ground-University of Richmond

Together in nonviolence ends violence

By Carolyn Bennett

“Trayvon Martin had a handful of Skittles. Barack Obama holds the presidential pen,” Sally Kohn opined this bit of nonsense on Wednesday at Reuters, and she didn't stop there. “But both are viewed, especially by white America,” she said, “as holding weapons, and in my view, both have been mistakenly fired upon, whether with real bullets or unprecedented political vitriol.” 

This is so ridiculous as to be laughable except that a major international news wire published this drivel and except for the fact of another sad and unnecessary death is added to hundreds of thousands of U.S.-inflicted deaths among Afghans and Pakistanis and Iraqis and Libyans and Somalis.

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Of course, Al Sharpton weighed in on the “Trayvon Martin case.” The man has built a reputation exploiting such cases. We become  spectators at theater in reality of the absurd — tribe time in the land of the free. Facts, memory, reason be damned.

In the face of an avalanche of blather, I wanted to know the facts sans emotion and, while I am unsure whether all the facts are in, the early reports in the Orlando Sentinel seemed to set them out.

A boy of 17 was visiting relatives in Sanford, Florida. Passing through the gated community of “Retreat at Twin Lakes,” the young man got into an altercation or a fight with an armed neighborhood watch agent. The agent shot and killed the 17-year-old.

End of story —or is it?  

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Whatever is or should be the proper or most effective response in these cases, the blather surrounding this case solves nothing. It certainly will not solve the underlying problem of the U.S. penchant for violence and, together with that pathology, the pervasive, irrational fear and paranoia among the U.S. citizenry.

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You can pray and chant and plant as many flowers as you like. March until your feet fall off. Attract jillions of clicks on websites where people spew offenses and other nonsense championing or slandering saint/sinner-black/white dichotomies or conjugating race, racists, racism. Cameras rolling, you may drag out as many pundits and presidents and preachers serving their own ends, spouting nonsense, pandering to one tribe or a thousand tribes. But none of this gets to the root of the problems and none of it will solve them.

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The United States of America has deep-seated problems that are globally pandemic. They extend much farther than what occurs between or among kin, colors or kinds within the United States. This condition, this fundamental ethos in action is in evidence from the highest levels of governance, through our neighborhoods, from sea to shining sea, and crossing borders in U.S. relations with many countries of the world. 

We are what we do — in New York, Florida, Kansas and California as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, Libya and Somalia, Bahrain and Yemen.

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To take hold of our problems responsibly, we must let go of the politicians and panderers. Let go of opportunists who build their reputations on manipulating us, dividing Americans from Americans and America from the world’s peoples. 

Sense our connectedness. Around a round table, join hands (that is, efforts and activism) in solving the problems of U.S. fear and fear mongering, paranoia and violence.  Divest of what sickens us. Disenthrall ourselves from that which divides us and from those who construct walls and drive wedges between and among us.

Sources and notes

“Trayvon Martin, Obama, and the persistence of bias” (Sally Kohn), March 21, 2012, www.reuters.com.

“Boy, 17, shot to death in Sanford during ‘altercation,’ police say” (Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel), February 29, 2012, sjacobson@tribune.com or 407-540-5981; http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-02-29/news/os-fatal-shooting-sanford-townhomes-20120226_1_gated-community-death-sunday-night-shot

“Trayvon Martin case myths, half truths” (|By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel), March 23, 2012, rstutzman@tribune.com or 407-650-6394;

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-23/news/os-trayvon-martin-questions-20120323_1_sanford-cops-sanford-police-investigator-suspicious-death

See also: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/#navlink=navbar

Photo images: 

University of Richmond, http://commonground.richmond.edu/programs/diversity-roundtable.html

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[Nonviolence international, nonviolence2, equality center, gun wrapped2 at]:  http://dictionary.magnificentideas.com/word/nonviolence/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy