We Live In Two Different Worlds...Or Three Or Four

Rachel Jeantel is not on trial.  Neither is Treyvon Martin but you'd never know it from the media coverage it's getting.  It's the Treyvon Martin trial.  Does anyone know the name of the actual defendant?

Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but the attention being focused on a 19 year old under educated girl who was Treyvon's friend is criminal in itself.

We can't all be perfect by even our own standards but is it necessary to pick apart this girl?  She is what she is.  She was the last person to talk to Treyvon before he died.  Therefore she is a witness.

It is said she'd rather not be there.  I can't blame her.  I've never been a witness at a jury trial but it seems to me it would be somewhat intimidating under the best of circumstances. She's nineteen years old.  She's surrounded by white authority figures.  She has lied.  Was it with malicious intent or a misguided attempt to escape further involvement?  Is she racist because she used the "cracker" word?  How do you want to define racist?  My guess is that nearly everyone living in her socioeconomic range  and educational level is racist.  Just like the Paula Deens of the world who grew up in the deep south where contempt for blacks and divisive language was commonplace.  You are the product of your environment and your upbringing.

Should she have polished her act for court?  Well, it's obvious she's been coached but you can't change who she is.  Take her testimony, be done with it and let the girl go back to her nail salon or where ever she hangs out.  Where she has her friends, is comfortable and happy.  Don't try to make her into a You Tube sensation or the subject of a made for TV movie. Both would be nothing more than exploitation.

Then get back to the trial.  Is George Zimmerman, the man actually on trial here, guilty of second degree murder or was the killing of Trevon Martin self defense?

The jury is a strange one to begin with.  All women.  That's hardly a jury of Mr. Zimmerman's peers, but then I'm not the one to question how the system works. I hope they can block out the theatrics and come to a reasonable conclusion as to what happened.

The death penalty isn't involved but lives are.  George Zimmerman's and in a great many respects, so is Rachel Jeantel's.  The question is can people from very diverse worlds really judge one another fairly?  In this country it's vital that they do.  It's part of living in a country that's a melting pot.  The problem is  there's not enough melting going on. Just stirring.  Mostly by the media. The result is a trial where a witness gets more attention than the defendant.