By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Angela Corey has become a minor legal celebrity for her tough-minded prosecution of the Trayvon Martin murder case. Her toughness has also drawn the ire of U.S. House member Corrine Brown in a racially charged case in Jacksonville. The case involves Marissa Alexander who was charged under Florida’s “10-20-life” law which mandates progressively tough penalties for violent felonies when firearms are involved.
Saying he had no choice, Judge James Daniel sentenced the mother of an 11-year-old to 20 years in prison after a jury convicted her of aggravated assault for firing a warning shot to discourage her estranged husband from choking her. In a cruel irony another judge had rejected Alexander’s invocation of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, ruling she wasn’t in fear for her safety when she returned to her house to get the car keys she had forgotten after she ran into her garage in an attempt to escape.
The prosecutor was singled out for failing to exercise discretion in the case. “There is no justification for 20 years,” Brown told Corey, “All the community was asking for was mercy and justice.”
Corey had offered Alexander a plea deal which carried a three year sentence. Alexander bet on the good sense of the jury, and crapped out. Judge Daniel seemed frustrated by the case:
“Under the state’s 10-20-life law, a conviction for aggravated assault where a firearm has been discharged carries a minimum and maximum sentence of 20 years without regarding to any extenuating or mitigating circumstances that may be present, such as those in this case.”
Rep. Brown was not so diplomatic saying, “She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period. She never should have been charged.” Brown, the Jacksonville congresswoman, told reporters that the case was a product of “institutional racism.” Corey said the case deserved to be prosecuted because Alexander fired in the direction of a room where two children were standing.
Mandatory minimum sentences ignore mitigating factors and punish under a “bright-line” test. They are the darling of the “law and order” crowd who see the world in stark shades of black and white and who eschew any discretion for “lily-livered” judges who have the disturbing habit of mixing compassion and justice in sentencing decisions.
Proponents of the 1999 “10-20-life” law point to the fact that violent gun crime rates have dropped 30 percent statewide since the law was enacted. Is 20 years fair for a woman trying to defend herself? Should the prosecutor have heeded Rep. Brown’s suggestion and backed off the charges altogether? Can a law be just in the face of a result that flies in the face of “natural justice”?
Source: CNN
`Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
BettyKath, nice wrap-up.
I have a friend [GUYS get ready I’m gonna be a name-dropper even though I won’t use her name] who is an actress, and she was offered the part of “Shug” in The Color Purple. And she TURNED IT DOWN! I’m still mad at her for that!
Belle, I don’t really know you, and I feel very concerned about you, and I just want to suggest that if you get really upset watching or reading something, DO take a little time for self-care and for remembering that you are not responsible for any harm you have not personally done. On another Turley thread, there’s a bozo trying to convince me that I have done wrong by not agreeing with one of his insane ideas, and I am having a good laugh at his expense, but really, it is easy for some people (especially women I believe) to think themselves really guilty when they read about others being hurt. Don’t go there. Give yourself credit for being as good as you really are, and if something is hurting you, pay attention to feeling better. Play some music, have a cup of tea, something nice.
Belle,
The Color Purple is a book written by Alice Walker with, as you say, a very powerful movie based on it. It’s an historical novel. I thought Walker may have taken some liberties but while doing some research I came across a news report of a woman who killed her children, very much as depicted in the book. I’ve wanted to read the book and see the movie again, but I’m not sure I’m up to dealing with my emotional response to it, especially knowing that the scenes that I initially had such a strong reaction to were based on something that actually happened.
I just found a website that might be helpful http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/purple
The notes here show how each character, in spite of oppression and abuse, transform themselves. These characters show that there can be life after abuse.
bettykath
It is one powerful movie. Thanks for the info, I’ll check it out. Some time.
I’ve been wanting to see it for years and like I said, every time it came on it was in the middle, at the end, etc… finally got to see the whole thing. Like you, I thought about watching it again, but it’s way too soon for me. I hardly ever read the same book, watch a movie more then once, but this one is different. It’s one of those things that stay with you for a while.
Belle, you say: “I will admit freely that I’m guilty of the very thing you stated. That was my first thought, and I’m not proud of it. I don’t know what to say. Malisha. What?? I’m sorry, or offer an apology ? How lame is that?”
Number one, you got me wrong. I do not consider you guilty of anything. You saw the Zimmerman case the way you saw it; that’s not a crime! You don’t need to apologize. And if you do feel like you should apologize, that’s not lame. So first off, that’s my statement on that count.
OF COURSE we all see things as we have learned to see them, you, me, everyone on this thread and all those who have never heard of this thread, etc. What a wonderful, exciting experience it is to allow oneself the freedom to see something today differently from the way we saw it yesterday, because we have had an experience between the two “sitings” that has changed us as people! Own THIS, Belle. You have earned it!
Naturally, if you had thought of the Zimmerman case “my way” and come around to changing your mind, I might feel somewhat aggrieved and think, “How could she THINK that?” but still, things happen, people change, life goes on.
You touched on something when you asked why I wasn’t a lawyer, Belle. I just hate that stuff, absolutely HATE IT. I can think of nothing WORSE! But thank you for the compliment. (What I was really good at was being a mother, and my kid, thank God, tells me that, so it came out OK.)
Malish and bettykath
PTSD, the docs call it.There answer is drugs. I refused most of them. They mad me, for lack of a better term, NUMB. How can you put yourself back together if you can’t feel anything.That just never made much sense to me, so I pulled myself up and faced it all. Healing for me comes from within, and I’ll be the better for it. Maybe help someone one day, but something good will come out of it. I’ll gaurantee that. Just seems to always work out that way. It’s time I quit dwelling and moved on. You guys are just easy to talk to……..
Yourself and Bettykath, you both seem to have a wide range of knowledge when it comes to the legal system that I just ‘assumed’….there I go again. assuming things…..that you were both, in some way professionally involved with it. . I find it fascinating. I’ve actually gotten rather hooked on it. I wasn’t physically able to do much, so out of boredom I was forced to watch T.V. Once I started watching all those live trials, I was like a kid with a new toy. I couldn’t, actually still can’t, get enough of it. It’s like a good mystery novel to me. A trial has everything you could want, or I could want anyway.
I like Mark O’mara, but how can he put on any kind of case if Z. doesn’t take the stand? Of course, Z. murdered the only person that could tell the truth. . Other then a plea, what else can O’mara do? As I said up thread, I’ve heard Z. say so many things that I don’t think he knows which way is up. The audio of him bashing the SPD officer in one account, then working with the same police dept.on neighborhood watch procedure.
He was pro SPD one day, the next he was con. One day no bandages, next time I saw him, three days after the shooting, he was walking around the police station with lots of bandages. What does that mean? One day he doesn’t have a head injury, couple of days later he does. How on earth does that make any sense at all? It doesn’t. His kids…. I do feel sorry for them. Kids, they are always the ones hurt the most.
Malisha
I will admit freely that I’m guilty of the very thing you stated. That was my first thought, and I’m not proud of it. I don’t know what to say. Malisha. What?? I’m sorry, or offer an apology ? How lame is that? The movie I watched last night, The Color Purple’ provoked all the other emotions for me. As well it should, I don’t know if I hated that movie or liked it. The movie is what made me furious one minute, crying the next, then furious again. It’s a powerful movie. That’s what I was talking about. And John Wayne solved everything with a gun. And that is why I told my friend that ‘ at least you don’t let your kids watch those shoot, kill, bang, bang your dead westerns.’
Zimmerman can’t take the stand. What could he possibly say? Although at this point, I’m fairly certain it would not bother him at all to perjure himself. All prior quick judgments of mine were wrong. Especially about Zman. Like I said, I’m as guilty as the rest. Or was at first. Yet that still makes me just as bad, in my book anyway.
Can I just take the fifth?
It’a fairly clear that most of the posters on here have much more knowledge about the law then I do. Maybe I should do less talking and more listening. After all, you can’t learn much with your pen/mouse in hand and your eyes closed.
I get exactly what you mean by assuming. I swear girl, you miss absolutely nothing, not one word.
And why aren’t you a lawyer? Lord knows, if you aren’t , you should be.
belle
Belle, there really isn’t a “my culture” — and I never saw those John Wayne movies, but what you describe is both interesting and revealing, because everyone’s take on what happened in the Zimmerman/Martin case ultimately comes from what they knew before they first heard about it. If people “KNOW” that (from watching 48) young African Americans are criminals, one presumably will “know” that Zimmerman was only trying to restrain a criminal that night. Then the presumption that Martin had to keep his identification as “criminal” or at least “thug,” regardless of what took place between him and his killer, it had to be his fault that “he got himself killed.”
The investigators in this case would have had a fertile field analyzing the things that Sling Trebuchet and Tony C and Leander have been setting out. My emphasis is more on pointing out that the self-defense claim will not work legally because the defense counsel can’t risk putting his client on the stand and letting him be cross-examined.
It sounds to me like your experience with the Zimmerman/Martin case is bringing up lots of other stuff for you that becomes quite complex. It’s hard work, this emotional and mental stuff, very hard work. And of course it cannot be done in a vacuum; it’s done while you live in the real world.
Sometimes saying things makes them take on a reality of their own. Whereas this won’t work for Zimmerman saying to himself (and others) “I just had to do it, I had to do it, I had no choice,” it can actually work for people saying to themselves, “I got these impressions; I formed this opinions, this is how it happened.” It is, in my opinion, the most interesting study on earth.
AND, considering that there is always choice about what to call a crime and what charges to bring, there may be more African Americans charged with murder simply because when it’s time to draw charges against a white defendant, there’s more “understanding” on the part of the police and prosecutors, as we saw with the Zimmerman case.
Were it not for Sharpton and Jackson, that death would not have given rise to any statistics at all, so there wouldn’t have been a homicide committed by a white person.
I have friends who are a family of mostly white folks. Mom and Dad are white from European ancestors, and their three biological kids are good looking tall thin blond kids with Hollywood looks. They have a fourth kid who is actually African, not African-American, but he looks like any American teen-aged African America kid and he speaks with a normal American accent (has been here since age seven).
They all live in the same place and go to the same schools.
One of their blond kids got into some trouble as a teen and the police repeatedly called and called and brought the kid home in the middle of the night and there were drugs and alcohol involved. No charges ever brought. The kid was sent to a great rehab place and upon report, is doing very well. Meanwhile the African kid got into a tiny thing with police and whereas he did not get processed as a delinquent or criminal, he DID get the formal “ticket” and have to do a diversion program to get off being criminally charged. And he had no drugs or alcohol in him at the time.
It’s just perfectly obvious that across the board, it is more likely to be charged with a crime if you’re Black than if you’re white, in this country. So the statistics, even when they are unremarkable, are not really reflective of what is going on in our court system.
Hey, everyone, waddayaknow? I just googled two phrases: “the first 48” and “african american” and the very first website (among many many many websites) was:
http://www.blackisonline.com/2012/03/the-most-racist-show-on-television/
It’s not a big surprise after all, is it?
Dear Belle,
You say: “When my friend said I was guilty of ‘social racism’ it made me wonder about the youngsters like Trayvon,. Injustice was the word that came to mind, but that is so inadequate.”
Here you may have hit upon one of the reasons it is so difficult for people to recognize and make changes in their lives based on their understandings of what goes on around them. You were not “guilty of ‘social racism'” because guilt is about what one DOES, not what one FEELS. The people who feel accused of having bad feelings will become defensive because they have done no recognizable wrong so they do not like being blamed for any recognizable wrong. Then they can no longer evaluate what their feelings are ABOUT because they’re so busy being defensive.
See, if my friend (to whom I said I was ‘racist’ as I believed all Americans probably were) had accused me of racism, I would have felt defensive and I would have been less able to identify my own feelings. Since she never accused me of racism (although I am sure, after all these years, that I must have given her some indications), I never got defensive about it and I was able to figure out how I thought and what I felt more easily, without blocking my thoughts and feelings from my own consciousness.
If I can guess, I will say that you feel especially defensive because you have been victimized (the domestic violence, the near-death experience) and therefore, that feeling may interfere with other things, but that you must be an innately strong and moral person because you’re so interested in figuring out what really frightens you, what can be discarded, and what can be illuminated.
For me it is a precious moment to be able to tell you I do not consider you guilty of wrong-thinking. Not a milligram. I believe you are an aristocrat of the spirit.
Perhaps you will write a critique of “The First 48” and get it published!
belle,
I’ll take your word about First 48. I really like murder mysteries where there is little violence shown (they’re scripted) but I really don’t like what I’ve seen of reality shows. My sample is small though.
I can relate to your reaction to First 48. Once upon a time I went to John Wayne movies without much reaction. Then, in the middle of one I had a visceral reaction that caused me to start thinking about his films in a broader context. They are all about settling differences with fists and/or guns and humiliating women. You’ve had the visceral moment with First 48. You’ll never watch one of those shows again with the same mindset you had before. In fact, I suspect that you aren’t too likely to ever watch it again. It will be too uncomfortable for you.
Why don’t they ever have white youth as suspects? Because the show is propaganda. It stereotypes young Black men as criminals. It’s divide and conquer. Divide Black youth from all other groups and conquer us all while we fear and fight each other. The more young Black men are perceived as criminals, the more of them will be locked up. Those with the energy, the anger and with nothing to lose are the ones most likely to start a revolution. Where do young Black men fit? It’s not an accident that so much of our criminal “justice” system is so f’d up.
re: white kid burglars in Zimmerman’s neighborhood. I don’t know. I haven’t heard that but it could be true. What I recall is two incidents of young Black burglars.
bettykath
Something else that I’ve read. And I read it only once. Once being the key word, there was a white kid involved in the robberies around Z neighborhood. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, the police confiscated some of the stolen property from some white kids. Like I said, I’ve only read that once, and the rest of the time it’s been young black teens that had been doing all the burglaries. Another invisible white kid.
bettykath
I would hope that if people would just take the time and REALLY TRY putting there selves in another’s situation, that they could bring about changes on their own. I can tell you one thing, listening to you guys, or gals, has sure brought some things to light for me. . Another thing, my parents taught each of us that no one, no matter there religion, color, etc… were any better then us, nor were we any better then them. My father was a stickler in that way. God forbid if we we would have been caught ‘bullying’ some one. I think now about how much different it might have been for Trayvon. Meaning he needed to be taught things that should never have to be taught to a child. I’ll just be honest with you, my thought would be along the lines of ‘who do they think they are’. Am I wrong in saying that? And I confess to being illiterate when it comes to being pc. if I feel it I say it, and there really is no hidden meaning behind it. Although I have a lot of mistrust for the media, it would be stupid to think that one can not watch what’s going on around them. I did see the Z. or I should say, heard, the Z audio of his bashing the Sanford P.D. I was wondering how he was able to do a ‘ride along’ with them ? I’m sure they don’t let just anyone do that. That makes me think more about the wanna be cop issue. Apparently after doing a ride along with one of the SPD officers he later went to a meeting and really bashed that officer. I’m beginning to think the man doesn’t know which way is up.
malisha
In some way there is an irony between my domestic violence issue and Trayvon Martin’s case. Without unexpected interference that night, my problem would have ended. And even though I had the means and opportunity, I still didn’t shoot my attacker..
Malisha
O.K. This may sound rather stupid M. but I’ve never understood the concept of color making any difference in a person. I just don’t get it. I don’t see color when I look at people. And I never have. That’s the honest to God truth. You have insight into people that I do not have, that most people are incapable of having. That is a gift in my opinion. Someone asked me if I still had those African American friends. Yes I do. We have remained very good friends over the years. I’m 53 and they came into my life when I was 21. I didn’t understand why someone would ask me that question in the first place. ……. The studies you are speaking of just purely pisses me off. That’s a huge percentile for the subject matter. It’s a heck of a ‘coincidence’ that I was eager to talk you about something along the same lines. Like I said, heck of a coincidence. When my friend said I was guilty of ‘social racism’ it made me wonder about the youngsters like Trayvon,. Injustice was the word that came to mind, but that is so inadequate.
I came across this blog by chance. Well, at least I thought I did. Maybe it wasn’t chance at all.
belle, A lot of people have social racism, probably most of us in one way or another. But we can change.
We have a natural tendency to feel an affinity to those most like us. If someone is different, skin color, language or accent, the way they walk, extremely good looking or ugly, badly scarred, disabled in some way, we tend to see them differently than we do those who are more like us or those we are used to. It takes time to see through the differentness to see the real person. Which differences we react to depends on us, our previous experiences, the propaganda we have been exposed to, the amount of intraspection we engage in. And we aren’t even aware of much (most?) of our reactions on a conscious level.
BettyKath, undoubtedly you’re right that something can be done about TV shows that are blatantly racist, etc. But I’m so “out of it” with respect to popular culture that I don’t know the TV world and didn’t know what you were referring to about Glenn Beck! I feel like Rip Van Winkle half the time. (I’m preoccupied by this or that and so forth, no excuse, just an explanation.) That’s why when either Matt or Manny O or somebody — maybe Bosco — can’t remember — came after me for not knowing anything about the Duke case or the Brawley case, I went, “huh?”
Most of the things that really occupy other people’s minds and hearts are things I have not even noticed! I actually thought, when I heard the title “The First 48,” that the show was about our country without the addition of Hawaii and Alaska as states! When I was in grade school, there were two fewer state capitols to memorize before the history test!
Perhaps “The First 48” should get a close look and a few activistic approaches!
Thanks much.
Belle, the whole reason we all talk is that sometimes we get something from it, and I always think that’s the best thing in the world that can happen. It happens rarely, of course.
It has long been my belief that everybody raised in this country suffers from one or another degree of “social racism” and that is why, upthread or on some other thread, I mentioned that I had described myself to a friend as a racist during the OJ trial. We are just subjected to a steady stream of impressions from our surroundings that we really cannot resist very well and most of the time do not even notice or recognize.
The Z case has been an eye opener, and an obsession, for me. Since I do not pay much attention to news, I had not heard of it until my friend (who is the same one to whom I described myself as a “racist” in 1995, and she is one of my best friends in the world, long-term) told me about it. She described it this way: “In a gated community in Florida, a white guy shot an unarmed black kid and killed him, and the police didn’t arrest him and didn’t charge him because he thought the kid was a thief.” She couldn’t remember the kid’s name so I googled “unarmed Florida shot gated community” and up popped the Trayvon Martin case (now the George Zimmerman case). Immediately I saw that from my perspective, that the kid was profiled (“real suspicious”) and that there was something wrong with what the police and prosecutor did. Why? Because they said that there was “no evidence that he did not kill in self-defense.”
You ordinarily do not LOOK for evidence that someone did NOT kill in self-defense. You look for the evidence of WHAT happened at the time of the killing. Looking at the crime scene would have shown no gun on Martin, no contraband on Martin, no knife, no switchblade, no brass knuckles, no pepper spray, no Mace, no bee-bee gun, no evidence of any intent on the part of Martin to do harm to a stranger. Was there a little blood on Zimmerman? Yes, and according to the EMT on the scene, he cleaned that up in a minute — blood from a half inch cut and an impact injury. So the story that the police and prosecutor gave out was equivalent to saying: “We chose to believe the word of the suspect without even checking on his reputation for veracity.”
That is why you and I immediately saw the story differently, from our different eyes.
The Hebrew scriptural book called the “Talmud” says:
We see things not as they are; we see things as WE ARE.”
So I saw the Zimmerman Martin case as a case of racial profiling, aggression and murder on the part of Zimmerman. You saw it as a case of a young Black man being a criminal and bad things happening as a result of that issue. It stands us both very well, in my opinion, that we have chosen to speak with each other honestly about our different reactions, and I have deeply appreciated your doing so with me.
malisha and bettykath
It’s 4 a.m. i can’t sleep, haven’t been to sleep at all, so bear with me. I finally just decided to get up and see what my girls had posted. WOW BK, talking about John Wayne, I swear it hasn’t been but a few nights ago I was talking to a friend about what she let her kids watch on t.v. What I actually said was, ‘what on earth do you let the kids watch?’ she said, nothing, absolutely nothing. I said, well, at least you don’t let them watch those shoot, kill, shoot again, bang bang your dead westerns. That’s just too crazy that Bets said something about J.W. This probably sounds just way too silly but I told her that I thought cartoons were violent. Heck, if you really think about it Elmer Fudd was trigger happy.You have to learn my sense of humor. Very dry. And I don’t age nearly as well as that fine wine does.
Just had to tell ya, I’ve been wanting to see a movie for years. Every time it came on I caught it in the middle, near the end, etc… Earlier this week I saw it was going to be on so I recorded it. I finally got to watch it. The Color Purple. I don’t know anything about this movie, or I didn’t, only that my buddies just kept telling me I had to watch it. I can’t stand to see women knocked around like that so I almost turned it off. I was by myself, and it just gives me a bad feeling when I see abuse of any kind now. sorry,,,. Anyway, I was furious, then I was crying, then I was furious again, then I was laughing. Then I was damn proud. Been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that stirred that much emotion in me. To be honest I haven’t really studied your culture, so I admit I don’t know how factual any of it is. Please tell me it’s just a story that someone wrote. And if that’s the case, that individual has more mental problems then I do right now.
I’m not physically able to sit here for very long at a time. Too physically painful for me. If I were capable I’d look the movie info up myself. Just can’t bend me neck, he messed it all up too. And I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. What the heck, he picked me up by my head and threw me. Docs want me to have neck surgery but after being in the hospital so long I’m almost as scared of hospitals then I am of HIM. OK. enough of that.
As to the movie. I know now why my girls just kept saying, you just got to watch it yourself.
My friends from Kansas City took me out for my 21 st. birthday. Downtown, K.C. Other then myself there were two white girls in the bar. One of the best times I’ve had in my life and one I haven’t forgotten and never will. Cracker, that’s what they’ve called me for 32 yrs. it started out as us joking around now I’m not even sure they could actually start calling me by my real name. Is that p.c.? They don’t care and I don’t either.
Ladies, it’s now 5:25 . I’ve got my windows open and the birds are going crazy. Gonna sit on my porch and watch the sun come up.
As always, thank you for puttin’ up with me, and it makes me feel good that I’m not the only one that feels that way about 48. I’m like Bets, I’m not a reality show person, well, I did watch Donald Driver kick butt last week, I watch the investigative aspect. TruTV is my fave, those live trials fascinate me. Have a good morning ladies.
belle
bettykath
I just read your post. Thanks. My concern was that I just now noticed it. It’s basically a reality show that takes you through a murder investigation. Like I said, all the years I’ve watched it I have yet to see a person, other then an African American teen, be the criminal. To be honest, I wondered how many whites, or other races, they passed over to get to the African American teens? I’m guilty of not noticing that before. Hence, the social racism. And besides that, it’s just down right unfair.
And to my friend Malisha, there right. I shouldn’t post about the other. I can’t talk about it yet, but YOU will be the one I’ll talk to. Thanks for the personal email address. Hopefully we’ll talk soon.
Malisha,
“First of all, there would be nothing we could do about it even if they were deliberately doing that to sell the idea that all criminals are young African American men. That’s their TV show. People can decide not to watch it, and so forth, but we have no real effect on what they try to show. It would be like telling Fox News which stories to cover or how to present their take on the news. ”
————————
What happened to Glenn Beck? Letters and emails to his sponsors who began to pull out. Beck was gone.
What would happen to 48 if everyone who didn’t like their premise – young African American men are always the suspects – were to write to their sponsors?
I haven’t watched the show (no TV) but is 48 deliberate propaganda to exploit Black men as criminals? No matter whether it’s intentional propaganda or not, it does embed that thought in the minds of those who watch it. southernbelle says, “Am I so tainted that I expect them to be African Americans.” The fact that she can ask that question is redeeming. But how many people watch it and don’t ask the question. They just accept the premise and see all young Black men as criminals regardless.
bettykath
I don’t want to be repetitive but the more I think about it the more it burns my butt. The last couple of days I’ve thought about how many times I’ve watched the show, and it’s been a lot, not once have I seen anything other then African Americans. How can that possibly be? I mean, what the hell do they do, just skip all the other groups? The real point is this: that’s what they have to be doing. It is definately directed right at African Am. teens, sometimes maybe 20 or 21 yr. olds but mostly teens. It’s blatantly obvious to me now. What?? no other people have committed murders in these towns? You could probably go to A&E on the internet and watch a few episodes. I gather the show is pretty popular, heck I’ve even watched weekend marathons. It’s just not right. Not right at all. And I’m one of the worst offenders.
To whoever posted in the recent past saying that SouthernBelle should not be talking about domestic violence on this thread (or maybe it was a different thread): why not? OT stuff comes on the threads on a regular basis. Sometimes a thread that was George Zimmerman’s poor nose will suddenly turn into a thread on the death sentence. So what?
We’re not even sure, any of us, that the other contributors are real people or if they are, which real people they happen to be. What’s the big deal if someone weighs in with something important to her that she believes is related to the issue at hand, or something in her personal life that has a meaning related to the subject of the thread?
Zimmerman and Martin did, after all, lead to Marissa Alexander which did, after all, lead to domestic violence which did, after all, lead to — Oh, I’m there already. It’s not that far a leap after all.
leander22 and Malisha
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies
use them if you want, but for me, having grown up in the 70’s drawing smiley faces causes hives and convulsions.