Never Let A Good Tragedy Go To Waste

Right on cue, Maximum Leader Obama, Maximum Mormon Romney and other political opportunists who happen to be running for office and need the polling bump, have weighed in on Trayvon Martin, helpfully pointing out that the shooting death of a child is a tragedy. Where would we be without politicrats proclaiming with boldness the obvious?  The squinting Muppet, Newt Gingrich, offered this bit of critical analysis to the pompous Piers Morgan:

I think that Americans can recognize that while this is a tragedy, and it is a tragedy, that we’re going to relentlessly seek justice. And I think that’s the right thing to do.

So seeking justice, relentlessly, is the proper response to something that is not only a tragedy but also a tragedy and Americans can recognize that. Thanks, Leroy.

According to the CDC, in the decade 2000-2009, 17,998 teens died ‘homicide/legal intervention firearm deaths’ in the United States. Those were merely events, or incidents, if you will. What makes this death a tragedy worth endless national news cycles is that it has taken place in an election year. Add to that the crucial and proper mix of race. Turns out Trayvon was black and George, the man who killed him, is Hispanic. Kinda bad, but wait, it gets worse. Ready? George’s father is white. Therefore, according to the New York Times, the Hispanic guy is actually a white Hispanic guy. Yes, you read that correctly. Naturally, this fact makes Trayvon even more dead, so you can understand the outrage.

Following the NYT’s lead and logic, Lord Obama will from now on be referred to on this site as a white Negro. Sorry, too incendiary. Make that a white person of color.

Granted, the problem here transcends race. The Sanford Police Department’s handling of the case remains an issue of concern. But, reverse the races of shooter and victim: Zimmerman is black and Martin is the white Hispanic. In that scenario, would the Justice Brothers and the New Black Panther Party (Same Great Hate – Half the Calories!™) be agitating so fiercely on behalf of Martin? In that scenario, would the President of the Universe be taking time out of His busy campaign and golf schedules to issue a statement that includes a narcissistic and bizarrely random assertion of facial resemblance in a hypothetical paternity? In that scenario, would anyone outside of Sanford even know about this story?

But the races aren’t reversed and so we have this latest cause célèbre with its concomitant presumption of racism as motive, attendant lynch-mob rage (sans irony) and valuable opportunities for self-aggrandizement. Meanwhile, if history is any indication, hundreds of similar or worse crimes without the proper political ingredients will occur this year and quickly sink beneath the sands of indifference.

The greater evil here is the wanton death of perspective; strangled by opportunism, smothered by emotion, stabbed though by blind hatred.

(For purposes of full disclosure, your author is, according to sculptors, a white Mediterranean.)