Karma

Sunday, July 14, 2013:

Supposing George Zimmermann is not innocent; supposing he did track down Trayvon Martin with the intention to kill him; supposing the jury was motivated by racially; supposing all that and more; the prosecution did not present evidence convincing enough to pass muster. Can I be angry? Can I be disappointed? Can I regret the outcome?

I have friends on both sides and I get it. I’m white… I’m white and it is supposed that because I am white I haven't a dog in this fight… that I should back off if I think George Zimmermann is innocent… or at least not guilty. However; it isn’t supposed that, because I’m white, I shouldn’t jump in if I think George Zimmermann is guilty and got away with murder.

Truthfully, I sat on my hands throughout the controversy over this case. I have learned, from personal experience with the judicial system, as it stands in the USA, that prosecutors don’t care one way or another whether the accused is innocent or guilty… they just don’t like to lose ( as witnessed by how they stick to their guns even when DNA evidence later proves otherwise). I know that defense lawyers don’t like to lose either. They don’t care about innocent or guilty; they just want to defend, as best they can, their client… get a lighter prison sentence or a “not guilty” verdict. We watch from the sidelines and some, in the news media and the rest of us watching it on T.V., see these sensational trials as a rating grabber, or a game, and could care as much about the results of these trials involving the lives, of the accused or the victim, meaning little more to them than a scorecard… no more than the results of the Super Bowl… it gets ratings. Everybody chooses sides and some even place bets.

So I sit after the verdict came in yesterday and prayed for the Martin family… and the extended family of Afro-Americans. I know, however, no one got by with anything. George Zimmermann and his family have a weight over their hearts and I pray for them too. Karma doesn’t weigh things in terms of guilty or not guilty as the legal system does. Karma isn’t a scorecard… it measures intent… the spirit. What I have to pay attention to is my own karma. If I am to take grief, or joy in the outcome, it affects how I act towards others. Karma determines how I act towards others and that determines how well I sleep at night or, more importantly, whether or not I would have pulled the trigger if I were George Zimmermann.

geo 5,404