Sunday, May 26, 2013

Open letter to Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton


Dear Sybrina and Tracy, 

I thought a lot about the blog I wrote earlier today and the tragedy of the video posted within the blog - and it made me want to say some things to you as individuals, and not as the bigger than life grieving parents created by Ryan Julison and your attorneys.  Whether you read this or not is anyone's guess, I hope you do and I hope you take it at face value without inserting any ill-meaning.  I see your side, but I also see Gladys and Robert Zimmerman's side - they have to live with the visual of their son being beaten and then, because he acted in self-defense, made out to be a monster.  Pain is relative.  You know who Trayvon was, and they know who George is - but because of the ridiculous circus this tragedy has become, no one else knows who either of them really are. (click "read  more" below)


I have been following this case for a year, and in that year I have had roller-coaster emotions about the two of you and the way this tragedy has been presented in the media.  Look, everyone knows you are not the Huxtables, and Trayvon wasn't the Fresh Prince, even your supporters know this.  Your family is not perfect, but whose is?  Your family and friends know the truth because they know you, and tragically, many of them live your "nightmare" every day in their own lives.  The problem is, they think where Trayvon was headed in life was "normal", it's as normal as going to work or to the store and that's alarming as hell - especially if  their "normal" is depicted in this video.  You both have a powerful voice right now and people would totally respect you if you would use it to make this culture of destruction and false entitlement go away.  People who act like those in this video, which represents MANY areas in Florida, including Miami Gardens, are not entitled to a damn thing, not even a decent jail cell.  Benjamin Crump is forever saying if this tragedy had been the other way around, Trayvon would have gone to jail that night.  Maybe so, but it is more likely that the tweets Mr. Crump calls "irrelevant" now, would probably have convicted Trayvon if he had managed to kill George that night.

Once the trial starts people are going to be hungry for information and they are going to find it in the words of your son and all the misrepresentations the both of you have been feeding the public for the past year.  By then it will be too late for you to have the credibility to make a difference.  Accepting awards and showing up at rallies for a cause that pales in comparison to the real issues facing young black men and women in our society will be for naught once the checks are cashed.  There will still be no Trayvon and  young black boys and girls will still be dying by their own violence and misguided ideas of what a man is supposed to be.

  Mothers will still be wringing their hands and mourning and fathers will still be putting themselves before their kids - what you are doing now is disingenuous and will not touch their plight.  

There are those who don't blame you for misrepresenting what you knew about your son's suspensions and private life - but I can tell you those are either naive individuals or enablers.  Decent and knowledgeable people see right through this mess and it has caused some to become desensitized to genuine racism and random acts of violence against minorities.  I look at this video and understand why Ben Crump has said countless times George should not have left his truck, Ben Crump is unknowingly revealing his awareness of the violent potential of teens like Trayvon - Ben Crump knew what was on Trayvon's phone and what might have really happened that fateful night.

Trayvon did not "deserve to die", but honestly, he did deserve to be raised better and to know starting a fight could very well get him killed by people who didn't get the environment he came from.  Trayvon wanted a gun and he didn't want it for game hunting - it was probably a matter of time before he killed or would have been killed because of owning an ill-gotten gun for the wrong reasons.  Trayvon was fascinated with guns, when he saw George's gun in his holster as they moved around on the ground, he wanted it, and no doubt reached for it.  George Zimmerman could have been killed instead of Trayvon had Trayvon bought the gun he was looking for in the weeks before and during his stay in Sanford - if you are honest, you already know this.

That team of lawyers representing you could care less about Trayvon, they used his death to further their agenda and pimped you out to do their bidding.  They suborned perjury with Dee Dee and you full well know it, she may even be charged.  When it's all over you will be left with a nasty taste in your mouth and a nice car, but there will still be no Trayvon and kids just like him will still be shot and killed or will kill.  I see these thugs on my Twitter and on Internet sites daily - they threaten people's lives and throw around the term "racist" like it's a bullet that is going to stop anyone who doesn't believe George is a racist who "chased" Trayvon down and killed him in cold blood.  I won't repeat the names I and others have been called - but these are your supporters because they relate to Trayvon and for the wrong reasons.

Sensible America sees through the facade more and more everyday.  George will never be convicted of murder and as a result our streets are going to look like the streets in this video...innocent people will be assaulted, some killed, over a verdict they don't want to hear.  I want a trial as much as you do because I want the truth to be unveiled once and for all, but I want it to be fair.  I want the two of you to speak to your supporters in an honest way and abate the insane madness so there can be a fair trial.    

Sybrina you stood at a podium once and said "They killed my son and now they are killing his reputation".  It is this blanket accusation and denial of responsibility or knowledge of your own son that infuriates many.  It is the way you used "they", as if killing your son was a conspiracy by a group of people - no doubt white people. This tragedy is not about race and "they" need to hear that from you, loud and clear.  It's about a teenager who was looking for a worldstar hip hop fight and ran into a man who didn't know what the hell hit him, being sucker punched was not his "norm" - he feared this kid was trying to seriously injure of even kill him.  He didn't know Trayvon so how could he know what he wanted or if he would stop beating him before he lost consciousness.  The idea that George may have lost consciousness  is laughable to many and has been fodder for a ton of Internet jokes, but I wonder how just how funny choking on his own blood that was flowing down his throat from his freshly fractured nose - while  a stranger was relentlessly pounding his head, really was. 

Have you ever had an asthma attack?  I have and so I can imagine how frightened George was of losing consciousness.  If someone attacked me, pinned me down and wouldn't let me retreat, I would have an asthma attack because mine are stress/exercise induced - and I would shoot them to get them off me.  There is not a more frightening feeling than that of not being able to breathe. Thus, my head would not need to beaten to a bloody pulp in order for me to fear for my life.  

One thing I believe in my heart of hearts is that you both know the truth in your heart of hearts, so do the upstanding thing, not the Crump/Sharpton self-serving thing.  Trust me, Trayvon's legacy will be as tarnished as Tawana Brawley and Crystal Mangum's credibility if you do not take control of it now.  What has come out about Trayvon may turn out to be inadmissible in a court of law, but he was real, his misguided aspirations were real, and I believe the true cause of his demise, his wish to be a gangster/thug, IS relevant to what happened on February 26, 2012. Please, stop the madness by campaigning for change in these communities and in the minds and hearts of the parents in these communities, or the blood of other young men and women will be on your hands when the not guilty verdict is read.  Damage control is needed now.

Moving forward I hope you will work with other parents and find a way to fix the street violence so that "RIP" t-shirts and buttons are the exception in places like Miami Dade, Detroit, and Chicago, instead of the norm.


V.