Trayvon Martin: Our Bi-Weekly Political Roundup

You don’t need us to tell you who Trayvon Martin is or what happened to him or how fucked up it all is. It’s been on the front page of every newspaper and website for more than a month now. It’s the most important thing in America.

Believe it or not, this blog has very little to say about it. We’ll just say that it’s a horrible tragedy and a case of blatant racism and there is not one thing about it that is right or just and leave it at that. The strange thing about this case is that the whole country is watching it very very closely, but not really talking about it the way they talk about other big stories. Our guess is that the reason for this is because 90% of Americans are in total agreement about it, and the other 10% are awful racists that no one wants to talk to anyway.

We’re listening though. As a nation, the more time that goes by, the closer we listen. We’re bearing witness, and that’s important. We waited and watched, and when the chief of police was forced out and the Department of Justice launched an investigation, we gave a collective nod. When president Obama said “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” we understood that he gets it.

Twenty years ago this case might well have caused riots. Now, in 2012, the national feeling is that we don’t want to do things that way anymore. We want to be beyond that. We want justice, not revenge. We’re going to keep watching until that’s what we see.

Drinking Liberally meets at 7 pm tonight, at Liam Flynn’s Ale House. New friends are always welcome, just look for the red, white, and blue bottle on the table.