By Jueseppi B.
From The Washington Post & Jonathan Capehart:
From Trayvon to Newtown
Aside from the historic presidential race, the thing I will remember most about 2012 is how it was book-ended by tragedies that shocked the nation.
In February, Trayvon Martin was making his way back to his father’s girlfriend’s apartment in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. He was returning from a 7-Eleven with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. George Zimmerman, a gun-toting neighborhood watch volunteer, thought Trayvon was “a real suspicious guy” and called the police. By the time police arrived, the unarmed 17-year-old was dead from a single gunshot to his chest.
What happened next would outrage much of the nation. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and was released without being charged thanks to Florida’s crazy “stand your ground” law — a dangerous law pushed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that allows someone to “meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.”
The horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., didn’t take long to stun the nation. We’d been through mass shootings before. We’ve even suffered through school shootings. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech shook us to our core. But the hell unleashed in Newtown, Conn., around 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 14 was altogether different.
Adam Lanza allegedly slaughtered seven adults and 20 children by shooting his way into the school with assault weapon and targeting kids who were just six and seven years old. A stranger targeting children for murder inside their school was something we’ve never before encountered. The emotional punch of such evil was personified by a tearful President Obama.
Read the entire article by Jonathan Capehart at The Washington Post.
Follow Jonathan Capehart on Twitter.
Filed under: Bad News, Black History, Causes, Court Room/Legal, Crime, Gun Control, Gun Violence, News, Photographs, The White House, World News Tagged: | Adam Lanza, Columbine High School, Conn, Elementary school, Florida, George Zimmerman, National Rifle Association, Newtown, Sandy Hook Elementary School, School shooting, Skittles, Trayvon Martin
Jueseppi B.
hopefully, prayerfully, this new year will be underscored by more triumphs than tragedies…
Let the church say amen.
yes dear…
2012 book-ended by tragedies indeed dear~ excellent conceptualization of it all jueseppi.
Mr. Capehart gets the credit for this…even though I don’t like him much.
interesting… i don’t vibe with j. capehart either, weirdo-ass dude.