“I am struck by misdirected focus and placement of blame in the Trayvon Martin case. Racism, profiling, a wanna-be cop, or the actions of a young man (who may or may not have been using drugs) were not the primary causes of this needless death. That is not to say that racism and profiling don’t exist; they do, and they are ugly and offensive. But a child is dead today, and a man, whether eventually proved guilty or innocent, will carry the scars of having been accused of this death for the rest of his life. Why? The instrument of tragedy, as in so many other cases of avoidable loss of life, lies clearly at the door of America’s sophomorically absurd love affair with guns — having them, carrying them, and feeling creepily empowered by them . . .
“Had this same set of circumstances occurred with no gun present, the worst scenario would have been an incident of fisticuffs, resulting in both people enduring mild to moderate bodily harm. But until everyday American citizens get over pretending they live in the Wild Wild West era of this country’s development, a child is dead and a man’s life destroyed.” – Virginia Franklin, Lathrup Village [letter to the editor via freep.com]