"A Plague on both your houses," For #Trayvon

I have been silent for the most part when it comes to the story of #TrayvonMartin. I was vocal and just as outraged as the rest of the nation when news first broke that a young 17 unarmed boy was killed while walking home from a store. My call for justice was that the known suspect would be taken into custody and that we allowed the courts to handle it. Through the course of the 28 or 29 day trial, I have stayed away from the news and anything remotely close to the case. Sometimes though that is easier said than done; in what I was trying to separate myself from, I got sucked in. Into the disgusting way a young woman was viewed by the public who commented on how she spoke, the fact that she lied about her age etc. Into the social media day to day response about what was happening in the court room and what would be the outcome. On Saturday a verdict was laid down- “Not guilty.” And like many others, my social media outlets erupted. I have been tuning in at a distance so as not to be emotionally wrapped up in what is happening. Seeing the comments from all sides is stressful: there are those who comment that race should not be a factor, there are those who say that in the value of justice, our system did what it was supposed to, there are those who are outraged, who feel let down by a system that continuously tells them their lives are not valuable or worthy enough for “guilty.” In seeing this back and forth I have wanted to comment, I have wanted to scream, cry out and shout.

In the wake of it all I was only able to post this:

My silence isn't because I don't have a ton to say. My silence is because I don't know HOW to say it.. 

I have been reading my news feed, and taking in a lot of comments. Some points I agree with and some points I disagree with. I have been seeing posts on Twitter and through other media outlets, and have seen the arguments from both sides. But my heart still weeps because in spite of our arguing a young man is still dead and we are no more closer to a better society.

I know now is the time to vent, to speak from your emotion, but I do hope that people take time to think before they speak. What we are seeing as a result of the Zimmerman Trial is just emotion. What comes later when the "smoke settles," is a time for healing and you can't heal if you spent this time shooting other people down. 

Healing means a time for ALL people to come together and grieve. Because we lost a human life and collectively we lost a part of our development as a better society.

So don't mistake my silence for not paying attention, I am simply seeking discernment and wisdom because despite our differences of opinion today, I NEED you in order to survive this life tomorrow...

Ella Baker, a SHEro of the Civil Rights movement once said "Remember, we are not fighting for the freedom of the Negro alone, but for the freedom of the human spirit a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind.”

I guess, that quote is a great starting place for this conversation. This case for me fundamentally is at the fault of all of us. We allowed a system in which it was okay for someone to stereotype another person and cause loss of a young life. We allowed a system where a flawed gun law protected him.

To those of my friends who do not identify with Black or African- American, until you have walked in my shoes, you will NEVER understand the emotions and thoughts that I go through, most especially when it is heightened in moments such as these. Making comments, posting status updates and sharing articles about what you believe is flawed, is your way of being able to contribute to the conversation. But what I ask instead of discounting, undermining and telling me my feelings are not valid, that you take time to listen. Do not dismiss me, us..

To my friends who might not identify with the Black/ African- American Community, our outrage is not simply because of #TrayvonMartin, our outrage is what he represents- the COLLECTIVE GRIEVANCES, EMOTIONAL STRESS and LOSS OF LIFE . Trayvon will never again be an individual, instead he will be the heartache that a community feels.

When you say we don’t understand the justice system, understand that historically the justice system has time and time again, let this community down. Understand that you are speaking from a place of privilege without having to have this history as your backdrop. When more of our Black men are in jail or their murders are not upheld in the same rate or fashion of those of other races it becomes an issue. When Trayvon was killed, it was on the heels of series of misses by the justice system- see Sean Bell, see Oscar Grant; Two cases that recently saw lax responses by the courts when the deaths of these two individuals was unnecessary.

While I understand your wanting to remove the Black/White Binary that litters this story today, you also have to understand that there IS no running away from it. It lives in the very fabric of what this country is and until we are comfortable to talk about it we will never get away from it. A friend shared an article during the aftermath of the case, where the Black author was questioned by her white friend who said “Why are you (my Black friend) so sensitive to race.” This question sparked a lot of frustration by the author, echoing several points that I have listed and will list through this blog. But it also raised this one for me- why do you (her white friend) think that you are NOT sensitive to it? In quickly dismissing our feelings, by saying we are sensitive to race, I believe that you are showing how sensitive you are to it. On the one hand you have Black individuals who are happy to confront the issues of race- if that calls us sensitive, because we are no longer willing to allow race conversations to be these subtle digs in our lives, than SORRY, NOT SORRY!!! But in your statement it reminds me that you are not to easily able to confront it either.

To those who say we live in a post-racial society, PLEASE do some research, spend some time talking to those of us in the community who constantly feel the pressures of the world around us. Yes, some of it is an ingrained sense of anxiety, but the other part of it is reality—too often it gets dismissed by others of our community saying we are “playing the race card,” and at other times it gets dismissed by other communities because they feel like we are past the tense race issues of the past. Because there are no dogs, fire hoses, cross burnings and lynchings, doesn’t mean that race conflict does not exist in this country. Because you can’t see it and touch it, doesn’t mean it’s not real. You don’t know my reality, our reality and the privilege you have is that you don’t have to know or feel that reality. But you must at least respect that it exists. You must at least have an interest in recognizing that it is an experience that we have. And you must accept the privilege that you have in not dealing with it the way we do.

In moments like these, my frustration lays in the WHEN will we be at the point. I think for our community we continue to have situations like these that we just "add to the pile," and I think people misunderstand that our outrage and outcry isn't because of this one situation, but that it adds to the collective grieving historically that our community has been faced with.. But I caution our community in these moments to use terms, "Like not in our lifetime." I want the WHEN to happen IN my lifetime.

At the core of Trayvon Martin is this misunderstood sense of Justice. We have this idea that Justice is mean to do something for good an evil. That Justice means retribution. In this case specifically, “not guilty” did not deny the fact that George Zimmerman is at fault for the death of Trayvon Martin. What “not guilty” did was say that George Zimmerman acted in his right to protect himself. It said that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he acted out of his turn. I know that this is a tough thing for many of us to understand, but I think we all need to take a step back. This should invigorate us to take politics and government more seriously, we should be moved to educate ourselves, our peers and our community about the system and we should work to make it work for us. In this time, the parents of Trayvon Martin need healing. He is no longer just their son. Like the many Black boys, known and unknown, Trayvon became ours. He became the image that we can add to the story that is so cloudy and painful. He will never just be theirs alone and this is their time to regroup to grieve again and to have that peace.

Before we ask them to take up our stripes even more, we need to give them time. I urge our leaders who speak about this case to be mindful that there are some people who just simply don’t know. While we argue that it is 2013, we can’t expect them to know in a time and in a country that is unwilling to make it matter.

So going back to Ms. Baker’s quote—Trayvon is our son. His story is our story and it is our responsibility to make up for our mistakes and failures so that we do not have another Trayvon story in our future. Until then, " a plague on both your houses." A line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. When the bickering of the families was much greater than the loss of life of both Romeo and Juliet. 

The denial of both communities to acknowledge their insecurities, privileges and lack of will power to discuss race- a Plague on us. Shame on us!

I hope that more than anything this life of 17, continues to spark a conversation. We have more work to do.

That's all she wrote! 

Killed Softly: Optimism dying

I'm 27 years old. Over the course of my life I have lived through some amazing shifts in our culture, nationally and internationally. How those shifts impacted me was greatly magnified based on the color of my skin.
  Being a member of what I choose to identify as the Black Community, (also referred to as the African-American community, here in the states) has with it a few DEEP rooted feelings and sentiments, ones that have been expounded upon by the likes of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Malcom X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., bell hooks-- just to name a few. For many of these profound thinkers the historical legacy of the Black community in the world has caused this symptom or disease that continues to creep into generation after generation. They had different terms for it, I call it FEAR.
  Being a member and a witness to the Black community in the U.S means that we teach our young men to be careful of their actions for fear that they will wind up dead, or in jail. Being a member and a witness to the Black community in the U.S. means that we teach our young women to be careful about who they give their hearts to. One because we are concerned of young women becoming mother’s way too soon, and two in reference to my first point our young men face many challenges but the most prevalent- death or jail.  We encourage our younger generation to strive for greatness and excellence in their education and their own self-value and worth. The backdrop of this fear, a history riddled with genocide at the hands of others and our own.
  In the decades of my life the Black community has been ravaged by Crack-- Black men and communities destroyed by 6 x 8-foot cells. Miles away from the "mean streets" they grow up in and are ultimately placed into what only science and great philosophers would classify as "chaos" or "the root of civil societies."

In the decades of my life, I have listened to and seen  the stories members of my community crushed by poverty. I have listened to and seen the stories of members of my community gunned down story after story on the news of another life lost. We have seen police brutality on a daily basis, that sometimes within the community it is no longer about who it will happen to and more about when.
   Over the last few years the story of the young Black man in the U.S. has been this-- 50 shots took Sean Bell, a gun mistaken for a taser took Oscar Grant, and recently incomprehensible motives took the lives of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis. These are the names of the men that made national headlines, these are not even the start of the many countless men who have been murdered shot and killed, gone too soon and in only something that can be defined as senseless. The undertones in these stories bring back our nation's racist roots. Bringing back the subtle and sometimes not so subtle understanding that we haven't moved that far from the feelings of a polarized us vs. them, Black vs. white dichotomy.
  When was it okay to automatically assume that another individual could cause harm, based solely on the fact that he happened to be Black? Trayvon and Jordan both 17 years old, young men, living the life that my parent's generation cautioned mine about exhibiting, end up being gunned down because of a look, a stereotype about their behavior and who they are. Dr. King Jr. said, in his well-known speech I have a Dream, :
    I have a dream that one day my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of the character.

Today, I think that dream died and continues to die a little more when not only are our young men being judged, but they are also losing their lives because of the color of their skin.

TuPac in his song Changes rapped about the gun violence within the Black community. He also rapped about gun violence and brutality AGAINST the Black community. The chorus of the song: 

"Come on, come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah"

The song for me always made me think that maybe ‘Pac was too pessimistic. On the one hand he looks at the world around him and sees that the same stuff that plagued the community before, still plague the community, in his lifetime.  But towards the end, 'Pac tells his audience that we have the power to see the changes we want to see, but we have to be willing and almost ready to change. 

Whenever I heard this song, I would look out at the world around me and see that there were still the same problems that 'Pac addressed, but as I grew up, I began to feel that we were making bigger better strides for change.

It's in these moments, reflecting on a life that should have been promised for these young men, a life that was robbed from them, from their families and their friends that I think 'Pac might have gotten it right in the chorus- That's just the way it is. There is an EPIDEMIC within the Black community. I don't want to live in a world, where I must be pessimistic and think That's just the way it is, and we are going to have to forever keep protecting our children from the living out the stereotypes that are killing them. I'm tired of having to convince myself that the Black community has it wrong, that we must change, when all Trayvon and Jordan were doing was living their lives, being young men- walking home, or getting gas with friends. They didn't deserve to die, and we shouldn't continue to sit back and toss up our hands and think that this is what our lives must be.

  As a member of and a witness within the Black community, as a future mother, as an aunt to nephews, a cousin to young men in urban environments I don't want to live in constant fear that one day the image that flashes across that TV screen could be them.

 My heart is heavy when I read these stories and see the reports. It breaks and it is full of pain, and a constant reminder that there is still much work to be done, that when it comes to race relations in the U.S we are still taking one step forward and two steps back. We have a Multi-Racial (Black for those of you who must claim it) President and on the one side this descriptive representation of a HUGE part of this society, means absolutely nothing when we are still rife with racist undertones and young men who could have been future Presidents  themselves, are gunned down in this day and age. 

  I am 27 years old, and what I see over the decades that I have lived is that we still haven't learned, and the changes that we had been hopeful for are still far out of our way. I don't want to lose my optimism, but each day that we lose another one of our young generation and our future in this fashion, my optimism gets killed softly.

R.I.P- Sean[23], Oscar[23], Trayvon[17] and Jordan[17] and now Michael Brown[18] (see below)

(This post was originally published on 11/28/2012) 

At the time I was 27 years old. I am now 29 and due to an event on my birthday, the country has erupted yet again. His name was Mike Brown, he was 18 years old. He was unarmed. He was shot 6 times, twice in the head and he lost his life.  

The city of Ferguson, MO is aggravated, and all eyes are on this city. But it's not just Ferguson, it's cities all over the country and all over the world. 

My words above speak for this situation as much as they resonated at the sadness, I felt hearing about Trayvon and Jordan. When will it stop? When will this no longer be our story? 

Power of the Mic- Why I love Lupe Fiasco

If you read my other blogs, you know I love music! I love the way music transforms people, I love how music can make people think. I have am particularly fond of hip hop and rap music. I have clear definitions of what these are.. Hip hop for me sparks people to think deeper, it provokes action. I look at Hip Hop starting in the 80s and still going on today, except back in the 80s you could count that Hip Hop was largely all of the music that you heard from certain artists and now only a few rappers I feel still fit in the Hip Hop Column. And Hip Hop today in my opinion is a dying breed where Rappers might dip a little into the genre but they are too mainstream and bubble gum producing the same trashy music- that yes I admittedly will play, but that produces an image of a culture that was very much far from what I think the forefathers of Hip Hop were trying to convey.
  So today, one of those artists that I feel continues to be true to Hip Hop is Lupe Fiasco... Lupe doesn't make music to appease the Industry. His music is enlightened, is challenging, teaches you to think, pushes the limits and doesn't fit in the form that many would think rap should. He continues to have a strong base of supporters and in my opinion for Lupe he's in the game not because of the music but because of the message.

 So recently he released a new song and video called "Bitch Bad." I had seen some rumblings of the video in my social media outlets but I hadn't actually seen the video for myself until today. I was blown away and in a GREAT way...
  "Bitch Bad" certainly is controversial. He basically is creating satire of what is known as "hip hop" music today. With the rappers and their money, and grills, showing off their jewelry and cars. It highlights the video women, dancing around in skimpy clothes and the misguided power that young girls think they can have. Images that make many question the sexism and misogyny of hip hop. The video is bananas (in a phenomenal way)  and the part that is so interesting is that not only is he making it a satire on what is mainstream rap, he has the "rapper" and the "video vixen" in his music video in Blackface. As a way to equate mainstream rap as a minstrel, playing into the hands of what the, then "white man" wanted and today an image that some claim as not our own. (Please note, our as I am a African descent woman and am speaking from the community to which I identify most with).
   I must comment here, that my fascination with this music video is also due to the fact that I love music, as I mentioned before and for me, music videos should closely relate to the story in the song. This video does just that, "Bitch Bad" is a play on the ideas that we have about what the word "bitch" means. For some "Bitch Bad" could mean "bad ass," "hot," "down," etc. For others the fight around the word "bitch" is that it is degrading. Women call each other "bitch" sometimes as a term of endearment so they claim, but most often as a way to cast them down.. not with the same meaning as the N-word , but it does have the same power.
  Lupe's wordplay throughout the song  is AMAZING!!  He starts the song "Bitch bad, woman good, lady better," as a reminder of what we should call our female population. Bitch is bad, woman is alright, but calling her a lady, better.
  And then you get to this verse:
  Disclaimer: this rhymer, Lupe, is not usin' "bitch" as a lesson
But as a psychological weapon
To set in your mind and really mess with your conceptions
Discretions, reflections, it's clever misdirection

I think this is what makes Lupe a GENIUS!! Lupe flips the image quick, to let you know that if you thought he was glorifying Bitch, that you had it twisted. 

He continues:

 He caught in a reality, she caught in an illusion

Bad mean good to her, she really nice and smart
But bad mean bad to him, bitch don't play a part
But bitch still bad to her if you say it the wrong way
But she think she a bitch, what a double entendre

This is the reality of the word in our diction today. Many people think bitch is a "good" thing. As I said, it's a term of endearment when your girls call you bitch, it's a negative when your man or another dude or another female that you are having issues with calls you a bitch. We ( as in women, the gender I identify as) use that word as if it is love one minute and a dagger then next. 

So with the lyrics and coupled with the video it is an all around "mind-f%&*." That has left me thinking about the way we use words. It also reminds me of those moments where I am torn between a good beat and a horrible misguided image that continues to taint the fabric of a community. Furthermore, it makes me thankful for the power of music as art, as a movement  and as an opportunity to speak a message and have value. 

But don't take my word for it.. Take Lupe's "Bitch Bad" 

My thoughts on Chris Rock 'White People's Day' July 4th Tweet

The 4th of July is a cause for celebration for many Americans. We use this time as a much needed vacation, we bbq, we find reasons to hang out with friends, drink and enjoy the merriment and laughter of good company. The day's festivities culminate in a tremendous display of technical ingenuity in a Fireworks show.... and for what?
  A day to celebrate the Nations Independence from the British. A day to reflect "the birth of a nation", outside of the domination of the British rule. But at what expense?
  Comedian Chris Rock hit the Twittersphere on this 4th of July (for many a day to highlight our extreme Patriotism) with this lovely beauty:
 "Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks." (via @HuffingtonPost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/chris-rock-white-peoples-day-july-4th-tweet_n_1651833.html?utm_hp_ref=tw)

A tweet that sparked a lot of controversy. This statement received a lot of commentary, in both a comedic fashion and one of profound thought. Whether or not you believe Chris Rock's comments to be a joke, he hit something in you to feel the need to comment. Why?

 Is it wrong for him to comment on how the "birth" of this country impacted his own heritage? What Independence day meant for white America was very different for the slaves at that time.  And is what Chris Rock said any different than the message written by Frederick Douglass so long ago in his "The Meaning of 4th of July for the Negro," (via PBS) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html ? Douglass states, "But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us." 

  I think that many Americans like Douglass, have commented on what we chose to celebrate in this country, because we turn historical moments into another day to get drunk and have a day off from work--- Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day etc. Not that every holiday or important moment in history needs to be a dramatic reflection on how far or how little we have come,  but we do need to sometimes look back and remember at what risk we achieved the "greatness" that is the United States of America.

Regardless of what you may think, because we are all apart of these UNITED States, we all have an obligation to our own opinions and values. We have an obligation to recognize, that why we may be United, the experiences which made us such are very different.

Personally I do not think Chris Rock meant to start this level of debate. I think he knew he was poking fun, but whatever the reasons I hope that some people learn some valuable lessons from this and at least strive to keep the conversation going.

Why the hoodies are so important

On February 26, 2012 a 17 year old young man was shot and killed. He was killed by a neighborhood watch captain, who thought he was "suspicious." This young man's name was Trayvon Martin. He was a 17 year old young Black Man. Trayon Martin's death has sparked a public outcry for several reasons. Trayvon Martin was considered suspicious by the neighborhood watch because he was wearing a hoodie, and seemed to be on drugs. Trayvon Martin was 17 year's old. Walking back to his father's fiance's house from stopping at 7/11 for an ice tea and a bag of skittles.
  While we don't know what made the neighborhood watch feel he needed to defend himself, we do know that a young Black man lost his life because he "looked the part," like this.

What does this image do?

To this day the 28 year old man has not been arrested and no charges have been brought against him. In less than a month Trayvon Martin's family has been left with no recourse for the actions of the man who killed their son. But as the name Trayvon Martin takes over social media and the news, more and more people are calling for justice.
Rallies are being held all over the country with people rocking hoodies and making calls for justice for Trayvon and his family.

With these rallies comes many questions. Why is it important? What do we want? What are our goals?

Here is why I rock the hoodie:
  - I have a nephew he is 14 years old and he rocks hoodies. He is at the age right now, that he'll stand around outside of a movie theater having watched a movie, will walk home from catching the school bus, or can just hang out at the mall. But if how he's dressed makes him suspicious, then I'm sorry, I'm rocking the hoodie. It's just as bad as someone saying the way I dress in short shorts and a tank in the summer is asking for me to be raped. Now we are saying that wearing a hoodie and walking home is a cause to get shot and lose your life. It's a direct assault on our young men (of ALL races) who are engaged in the "hip hop culture"
There are many young men who are like my nephew, who look like Trayvon, who look like the image above. These young men shouldn't be stereotyped at an expense that costs them their lives.

- Why is it okay for some man to still be walking around after killing a young kid? Why haven't charges been brought up? Regardless of guilt, murder equals being tried in the court of law?

-  When I have a son, I want him to know that his life is valued. That who he is is valued. Yes we teach our young men to act a certain way, to carry themselves with pride, with dignity. But we don't expect our young men to be gunned down. There are 99 problems that I already face raising a young Black man in this country and in this world. Fear of him dying by the hands of someone ignorant is not one of those 99 problems I want to always have to think about.

- Why not? What are we losing by rocking a hoodie? We've already lost yet another Black man for a senseless crime. Trayvon will be marked in history under an abundance of names like his- Emitt Till, the 4 Little Girls bombed in a Birmingham Church and Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. Trayvon Martin, for me, will be a name not forgotten. A name like the ones who went before him, that didn't deserve his end.

I get that for many there needs to be a goal. That as a community we have lost our "protest power." But sometimes we need to unite simply for the need to heal. I'm tired of coming back to the same thing. I'm tired of people being to confused to have an open and honest dialogue about race in this country. I am tired of feeling that anytime I get engrossed in stories like this, that I will be labeled "Angry Black Woman." We have an obligation to our youth, that they won't die. We have an obligation to our youth to protect them. We have an obligation to ourselves to leave this world a better place then we got it.

To a community, we are wasting the gifts we have been given by the activists and martyrs before us. If we don't stand up now, when will we stand up..

So today and every day next, I will wear my hoodie with pride and with one name in mind Trayvon Martin, may you never be forgotten.

Giving- Bill Clinton

Just finished reading Bill Clinton's Giving. Such a good book on the power that we all possess-  the ability to give time, energy, money or skills. The one thing that I have always stuck by in my own beliefs is that God has blessed me with an ability to breathe, so I can give my time and energy for others. In Giving Clinton lays out so many opportunities for the average American to give in anyway they can. He talks about how the "biggest" givers have been able provide for opportunities that the average person can get behind, support and build to benefit others. I used to think what I wanted to do with my life, make a difference for others was something that was sort of an anomaly but reading this book and seeing what Clinton has laid forth I have just been so proud to know that I have a vision and that there are others who are in the same position as me. I am 26 years old, with air in my lungs, I might not have a lot of money but I am so thankful and blessed to have this opportunity to give. It excites me, makes me happy, it fulfills me.

 I recommend reading Giving if you haven't read it yet, it gives you a wealth of information about the amazing network that Bill Clinton is a part of. It truly is about who you know, what you are able to give to others. Clinton was able to pull the right people together to change the world. Bill Clinton might have money, but he is great at connecting people and creating this global network of change. There are parts about Clinton that I do not agree with, but then there are parts of Clinton that I love to see and am reminded about what a great leader he is.

 

This thing called Justice

Hi all: so as you know the purpose of this blog stemmed from the need for me to sort of separate the different facets of my life and emphasize the different parts of my identity. I have my one blog that sort of shows what got me to this point in my life, what has been the biggest marks of my life and how I have used these moments to shape the woman I have become. This particular section of my blog "Be the Change" focuses on my activism. The woman I am today is because of the many different topics I am passionate about. They are anything from politics, to social justice issues to many other areas that impact a person's growth or topics that I can use to stimulate discussion.
  Well I recognize that I do not post as frequently as I should from this blog primarily because my life is activism- in some way shape of form. I am doing it everyday and tend to forget to utilize the outlets I have.
   This week marked a new leap in the U.S Justice System and sort of solidified one, in my opinion, faults of this country in justice-- the death penalty. Whether you believe in the use of the death penalty or not as a form of justice the point is the U.S was thrust into this terrible position as technology began to catch up with the past.
  Over the last decade or more we have begun to see a trend in reversals of prison sentences as people who were thought to be guilty were found to be innocent. We have begun to see some of these positions reversed particularly in the area of life in prison. Amongst prisoners on death row, this has sparked a new trend in the increase of appeals as well.
  While I understand the many reasons why the Justice System works, I find it personally difficult to grapple with this idea that any error in the system is almost ignored and the same old policies are continued. This last week one case put this flaw under a magnifying glass.
  His name was Troy Anthony Davis, in 1989 he was accused of murdering an off duty cop named Mark McPhail. This is not at all to take away from Mr. McPhail or his family as no one's life should be taken away. However, Troy Anthony Davis maintained his innocence through the trial and after he was sentenced to death. For the last 20 years Troy Anthony Davis has spent time on death row. His name picking up speed as he began to appeal this sentence, raising doubt in the fairness of his trial. His story like some others, was left to inadequate lawyers who were unable to properly defend him in such a high profile case.
   What was unfortunate is that over the last few years witnesses, former Presidents, former FBI Chiefs and even the Pope among countless others have stepped in to ask the Georgia Courts and eventually the Supreme Court of the United States to rethink Mr. Davis' sentencing and to commute his sentencing to Life in Prison so that a new trial and case could be presented. The Troy Anthony Davis case raised a lot of doubt to his guilt and to ultimately the sanctity of the Justice System itself. Despite the intervention and protests and a few hours of delay Troy Anthony Davis was put to death on Wednesday night.
  I do not know if Troy Anthony Davis murdered Mr. Mark McPhail. What I know is that one person was murdered, and that we killed another many who may or may not have been innocent. I think it's heartbreaking and tragic. I think that when this level of scrutiny is being raised we need to pause and reexamine our policies. I think we need to provide a pathway that grants criminals innocent and guilty the best lawyers to adequately defend them. Everyone based on our Constitution deserve the right to a fair trial, and currently that is not something that is being done.
  I hope that this country and the activists and protesters that petitioned the Supreme Court to listen to the Troy Anthony Davis appeal continue to fight for the cause. I hope that some day we can correct this system and make it truly work in the way it should.
  I think that our Justice System has done it's job most of the time, but there is now an opportunity to correct it, strengthen it and make it better.
  R.I.P to Troy Anthony Davis and Mark McPhail may Justice be reached in both of your names.