An Open Letter to George Zimmerman

Dear George Zimmerman,

You do not know me, but I live in Brooklyn, NY. I am the mother of one daughter, aunt to one niece and three nephews.

I’ve spent the last sixteen months thinking about Trayvon Martin and you. Wondering of course, how this tragedy would eventually play out and last night a jury of six women confirmed my fears.

George Zimmerman the news is reporting that you have been set free. But that report is grossly incorrect, because your freedom has been snatched away. Your anonymity in this world has come to an end.

I’m sure you have read and heard the comparisons between Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin. I’m curious if you’ve even taken the time too find out who Emmett Till was. If not, let me brief you.

Emmett Till just fifteen years old when he was murdered by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Emmett Till’s only crime was the badge he wore, and that badge was the color of his skin.

Milam and Bryant murdered Emmett Till because he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Can you imagine taking a life for something so harmless?

Oh, yes I guess that would not be so far fetched for you, because you murdered Trayvon Martin for wearing a hoodie and walking in the rain while carrying a bag of skittles and a soft drink.

Not too long after Milam and Bryant were acquitted for the murder of Emmett Till, they admitted to murdering him. Of course, they could not be trialed again, due to Double Jeopardy.

Their lives going forward were unhappy. They, not unlike you, lost their anonymity in this country. They fled Mississippi for Texas, believing that they could live a nice quiet life there. But that was not the case. They were harassed and taunted in the streets. Their own kind called them “Child Killers.”

I remind you that the year was 1955, a time when social media wasn’t even a thought.

Both men would eventually die of cancer. Well, guilt will do that to a body.

But I digress.

George Zimmerman, the news reports say that you have been found not guilty and that you are a free man. But none of that is true. You are guilty, you know it, God knows it and most people, who have followed this case, know it was well.
And you are far from free.

This is 2013, and thanks to social media, CNN and other news outlets, your face and this case has reached all four corners of this globe. The whole world is your prison.

It’s ironic really, similar to Trayvon Martin and other black men in this country; you are now unable to freely walk the streets of your neighborhood or any other neighborhood for that fact. You are a marked man.

Any where in the world that you go, there will be someone there, black, white or otherwise, who will recognize you. There will be someone there who sympathized with Trayvon Martin’s parents. There will be someone there who will want to do to you what you did to Trayvon Martin.

What a life to have to live!

A life of looking over your shoulder, of being afraid to open your own mail, not being able to enjoy a meal at your favorite restaurant because, well, cyanide has no taste.

I wish I could say that I pity you George Zimmerman, but I do not.

I do not pity you because you took a child from his parents, and a brother from a brother. I do not pity you George Zimmerman, because you succumbed to the belief that a black life is worth less than a white one.

I wonder, in the seconds after you pulled your concealed gun and squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet straight through Trayvon Martin’s heart – I wonder if in those last moments when the light leaked out of Trayvon’s body, if Trayvon looked you square in the eye and whispered, “Why?”

And did you have an answer for him George?

Did Trayvon at last look human to you? Did you then realize that Trayvon was someone’s child?  Were you sorry, even for a second?

These are just my musings, and of course do not require a response from you.

For sixteen months I have prayed for Trayvon Martin and his family. Today, I pray for you George Zimmerman:

I pray that with every beat of your heart, you hear Trayvon Martin’s screams for help ringing in your ears. I pray that every time you close your eyes, you see Trayvon Martin’s face swirling in the darkness.

Amen.


Intention is a powerful thing George Zimmerman, and so is karma.



May God Have Mercy On Your Soul…



Bernice L. McFadden











Bernice L. McFadden