Every time I think of Treyvon Martin I see my son's face.
My wife and I adopted our son when he was 3 1/2 months old. Yesterday we celebrated his 12th birthday. Each day he becomes less and less a baby or a little kid and more and more a young man. As with all parents, I'm sure, when he learns something new or shows a more advanced level of maturity or shows that his interests are becoming more adult, my wife and I are proud of the advance and at the same time sorry for what's being left behind.
My son has recently made a new best friend. They do as all boys that age do, go into his room and play video games for hours on end, eat everything in sight and talk about school, teachers, girls and, I'm sure, what pains in the ass their parents are. The only difference I see from when I was their age is that you could replace video games with comic books.
The biggest difference between my son and his friends and his parents and about 97% of the population up here in Maine however, is that my son has a black skin.
Yesterday we had as good a birthday celebration as we could have given that I haven't had a job in 10 months. My sister-in-law bought him a bike that we picked up at the store. We put a few dollars in a card and took him to the video game store here in town for a couple of games. I baked him a birthday cake and made one of his favorite dinners at home and we let him pick the Netflix movie we'd watch during dinner. My wife and I also split his chores between us for the day. He very maturely accepted that his big celebration with Mom and dad will have to wait until after I get a job, when we'll take him for a huge Chinese Buffet feast and give him his gifts from us. All in all it was a very nice day.
That is, until I looked in the rear view mirror and saw my beautiful son wearing the hood on his jacket.
I realized even more so than before that if there were an armed racist out hunting "f***in c***s" as george zimmerman was, my son's gentle and loving nature would mean NOTHING. The fact that this young man who has, since he was 5, always wanted to buy food for any homeless person he sees at a McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant would mean NOTHING. The fact that the worst thing this bright, articulate and handsome young man has ever done was to be a frequent pain in the ass to his parents and teachers in the same way that most kids the same age are would mean NOTHING. The fact that he is loved unconditionally and passionately by parents who would sacrifice their lives to save his in less than a heartbeat and consider it the best bargain we'd ever made would mean NOTHING. The devastating loss for us and our friends and family would mean NOTHING. These things would mean nothing to a george zimmerman type because they would only care about "bagging their prey".
I remember when one of Ted Kennedy's sons lost a leg to cancer at about the same age that my son is now, he said that having children is like giving hostages to the world. I realize now just how true and powerful a statement that is.
When I was a child, my mother used to let me walk to and from kindergarten alone once I knew the way. Do you know why? Because EVERYBODY's mother let them do the same (at least where I grew up). Once my father took a powder when I was in first grade and my older sister got married not long after, I was a latchkey child. Neither my mother nor I ever had any concern for my safety in going to and from school.
That was in the 1960s. This is now.
Dangerous racist "hunters" like george zimmerman are out there. They will be supported by the teabagger republicans and fox news who will slime and smear the victims who have the temerity to have been born in a black skin to make them look like the criminals and attempt to turn the murderers into the victims.
We have to do everything we possibly can to stop this. One way is to give the racist republican/teabagger/fox news congregation the political repudiation that they so richly deserve this November. Another way is to demand, long and loud, that george zimmerman go to jail for a very long time.
We stopped the vietnam war by letting the powers that be know that the whole world was watching. This needs to be done again.
PEACE!
= new reply since forum marked as read
as less than human will NOT STOP FIGHTING for the simple human right to be know that a simple walk to the store is ALWAYS just that and that someday, your son will raise children in a world where they can wear anything they want, go to stores to shop, ride bikes with friends and the thought that someone would stalk them with an eye toward hurting will seem as insane as a Nobel Prize for Sarah Palin. 
your words, your experience and your family.
Thank you for this excellent post
I am completely with you and I would venture to say that most decent people are as well. There will always be setbacks because human beings are a messy lot, but I still believe, as MLK said, that the arc of history bends toward justice.
Happy birthday to your son! 
They were a constant reminder of why this fight, at this time, is so important...
Riding public transportation before and after the march--buses, subways and commuter rail--I was surrounded by minority kids who deserve a better future.
Coming home, when my train reached my station, I was waiting to get off with a young Black couple and their child. The young man pointed out my 'Million Hoodie March L.A.' shirt to his wife, and after we talked about that, he thanked me.
I was a little taken aback, because I didn't expect to be thanked just for being a white man involved in this issue. I was only able to say, "We're doing it for ALL of us"--not the best response, but the best I could manage at the time.
On the way home from the station I stopped at Walgreen's, and the young white woman who checked me out commented on my shirt. Being in a very red community of CA where displaying anything progressive, dem, or, at least to some extent, even anti-racism is almost an act of defiance, it was heartening to find this young woman knowledgable about the issue and about the marches and rallies occurring in our area--and VERY supportive.
The question used to be, "If not now, when?" Now, finally, for all of the tragedy and grief and loss, something positive is happening. Not an overnight cure, but a step, or two, or three toward a better world for your son.
Thanks for sharing your powerful story, MarianJack. Big K&R!
Love & Peace.
pinboy3niner
EVERYONE'S son or daughter is a potential target when dealing with a trigger happy "human hunter". Thought and consideration aren't really a big part of what people like zimmerman do is it? If it were, he'd have backed off like the 911 dispatcher told him to, Trayvon would have probably told the cops what he was doing and we'd have never heard of this young man.
Instead, he's dead, his family devastatd and every concerned parent sees their child as a potential target for morons like george zimmerman who will be supported by the bagger/republican party and fox "news".
PEACE! 
