On Trayvon

I was driving home tonight listening to a panel of parents talking on NPR
about the Trayvon Martin case and just getting all sad and a little worked
up all over again.  If you listen to enough upper middle class talk soon you'll
be believing that we have just all made too much of a fuss and why can't we
just calm down and get over things and put on our nice southern smiles.  
But then I remember that NO, it's not ok that a boy is dead and he would
not have died or even have been noticed if his skin had been different and
a gun was not at hand. 
There are complaints about trying to portray Trayvon as an angel when he
was not. I do get this one, I'm sure Trayvon was no angel and neither am I
and neither are any of my three sons but none of us deserve to be shot for
our sins. 
There is so much that I didn't know. I was prepared when we adopted
Levi to fight the abstract tension of racism but not its physical
manifestations. I was not prepared to have to tell him to be extra
deferential to police men or to always keep his hands out in the open
or never to put the hood of his sweatshirt up... Never expecting that
the payment for such trespasses could be death. I would not have to
have those conversations with my other sons, why should I have to have
them with one? 

I was prepared for hurt feelings but not for blood. But this is a very real
fear for many people... The same people who are created in the image of
God, a God who weighs our hearts and does not look at us the way the
world looks, at the outside. 
Our view is so limited. If only we could see each others' hearts. God,
give us the ability to see beyond what our eyes perceive, give us a
sensitivity to the Spirit!

Help us to move towards and
"believe in a world where no one is profiled but everyone is profoundly valued,
where boys walking down the street with Skittles are simply asked if they need
a ride home, where grace is the weapon that disarms the dark."

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/07/how-to-live-after-the-verdict-is-in/