Losing Ground

Marissa Alexander fired a gun at her abusive husband with the belief that she was protected under Florida's Stand Your Ground Law. She is now going to prison for twenty years, the minimum mandatory sentence for her crime, after rejecting a plea bargain in the hope that a trial would vindicate her. Trymaine Lee of The Huffington Post gives more detail about this rather complicated case in an insightful article.

While I take no pleasure in Alexander's circumstances, it is heartening to me that Stand Your Ground just lost some ground. It will be a big part of George Zimmerman's defense when he goes on trial for killing Trayvon Martin. I hope this latest development will help get justice for Trayvon.

Susan

Hope

A few times, I've been in meetings or seminars and heard the "ice breaker" question: What famous person, living or dead, would you like to have dinner with? My answer is Sir Winston Churchill. What a remarkable man, who lived at such a pivotal time in history. He also had a great sense of humor, and what is a good dinner with a great man without a little laughter?

Churchill said, "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

When I learned last week that George Zimmerman was in custody, it gave me hope. Finally, someone did the right thing. Tomorrow my dear roommate-friend and I will be mailing an envelope to Trayvon Martin's mother, in care of her attorney. It will be a pretty card my friend bought, something beautiful she wrote, some music her son recorded when he was a teenager, and my blog post, "I am Sabrina Fulton."

We've talked about the possibility that it may never reach her, because perhaps those who know her best will decide it's not helpful. We are okay with that, and it's because we believe that just the positive energy of doing it will reach her, one way or the other.

Hope. From us to her, with love.

Susan

I Am Sabrina Fulton

In 1976, my senior year in high school, our homecoming queen was African-American. I remember thinking that this is the future, a place where we all get along, where the color of your skin doesn't matter. If you would have told me that our country's racial problems would only get worse, I never would have believed you. Not for a minute.

It was a joy to dance at my older son's wedding, and to watch him hold his infant son in his arms for the very first time. Sabrina Fulton will never get to do anything like that. My younger son was a fashion conscious teenager. He wore skater shoes, tee shirts, hoodies, baseball caps and pants that hung low. Really, really, really low. He listened to rap and hip hop as he tried to make sense of his world. I watched with pride as he received his Bachelor's degree. He is 27 now, and next week he and I are going on a short vacation together, just the two of us. Sabrina Fulton will never get to do anything like that.

Go to Amazon and you can buy a shirt that says, "I am Trayvon Martin." President Obama commented that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. My sons are white, but they were once 17-year-old young men just like Trayvon Martin. Last night I caught a glimpse on the television. There was Sabrina Fulton, remarkably composed and articulate, talking about her precious boy. My mother's heart broke a little for her. If George Zimmerman is ever charged and goes to trial, he as an American citizen has a right to a vigorous defense. That defense has already begun in the media. Casting aspersions on the victim is part of the whole process, however painful that is to Trayvon Martin's mother. And George Zimmerman has a mother, too, right? How horrible it must be to know that your child has taken a life.

Sabrina Fulton is enduring the worst pain a woman could ever experience, and she's doing it 24/7 while the whole world watches. I would like to apologize to her. I would like to say I am sorry. Sorry for her pain. Sorry for her loss. Sorry that I have done so little to make this country a better place for our children.

Susan