Photo of Florida courthouse courtesy of Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

I haven’t followed the Zimmerman trial because I’ve been trying to avoid stress, and I knew that no matter the verdict, if I paid any attention to it, it would stress me out.

Now that the verdict’s in, I’m not going to write about it except to say this:  An unarmed boy was shot and killed by an armed adult and the adult faces no consequences.  All else is lawyering and obfuscation.

If you believe the worst of Martin–that he savagely beat Zimmerman–and think that Zimmerman’s response was appropriate, then there’s no point in discussion; you and I live in completely different worlds.  Even in the Old West, which people nowadays regard as the height of armed anarchy, the other guy had to draw his weapon first for it to be okay to shoot (and kill) him.  This kid didn’t even have a weapon.  So if you believe that it’s okay for the law in 21st Century Florida to be more regressive than in the anarchic Old West, hey, go right ahead, but I have nothing to say to you.

As for me, I’m simply disgusted.  And that’s all I can really say.