Trayvon Martin - my blood is boiling

In case you’ve been living under a rock the past few weeks, Trayvon Martin was a seventeen year old teenager shot to death in a Florida neighborhood by a twenty eight year old man, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman has walked away scot-free from the crime because Florida has a ‘stand your ground’ law which claims that, if you feel threatened, you can harm or kill that threat in the name of self-defense.

Here is a summary of what happened the night Trayvon was shot:

“Consider what the evidence tells us about what happened that night. Martin was walking through a neighborhood when Zimmerman spotted him. Zimmerman calls 911 and reports suspicious activity, which is really all a neighborhood watch captain is supposed to do anyway, and is told that officers are on the way and that he shouldn’t pursue the person he saw. Zimmerman pursues him anyway, and the two end up in some kind of altercation. We don’t know what set it off, because there are no other witnesses, but at some point during this altercation Zimmermann shot Martin. Can we really say that Zimmerman ever had a reasonable fear that his life or safety was in danger, or that he didn’t bring the physical confrontation on himself by ignoring police advice and pursuing someone whose identity and intentions he was not even aware of? Surely, Zimmerman was not in any physical danger when he first saw Martin and called the police, that only happened afterwards when he chose on his own to pursue this person. And, surely, one could surmise that Martin may have thought that he was in some kind of danger from this unknown person that was following him. Rather than self-defense, this easily could be seen as a confrontation that Zimmerman invited and even initiated, which is what makes the police’s initial decision to decline to pursue charges in this case so disturbing.”

Doug Mataconis, ‘Murder or Self-Defense?’, http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/murder-or-self-defense-florida-case-raises-questions/

I cannot believe the audacity of the Florida police. A boy gets shot dead, and the shooter gets no charges held against him because ‘they have no evidence to contradict his story that it was an act of self-defense’. WTF?!  I mean, really?!

Police Officer: “You’re under arrest for murder.”

Suspect: “Err… it was self-defense.”

Police Officer: “Oh right, sorry Sir. You’re free to go. Have a great day; I’ll just clean up this corpse.”

It’s outrageous that Zimmerman, after being explicitly told by police to leave them to assess the situation, pursues the unarmed teenager and is released without charges after shooting him dead. When Zimmerman initially rang the police, he told them, “Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy… he looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something.”

He looks like he’s up to no good OR on drugs OR something. Talk about shooting in the dark to find a cause for suspicion (if you’ll pardon the pun). Since when does walking along the street make you appear suspicious?! OK granted, this is America where everyone drives everywhere, but still! Zimmerman made a completely baseless stereotype of a young boy in a hoodie walking along in a neighborhood where he wasn’t immediately recognized by the local ‘nosy neighbor’. Instead of letting the police deal with it, as he was instructed, he followed the boy who shortly after, ended up dead.

Had Zimmerman left it to the authorities, Trayvon would probably have been asked where he was headed (his father’s fiancée’s house) and maybe searched for the drugs or paraphernalia that were apparently causing him to appear ‘up to no good’. They would have found nothing on him but a packet of Skittles and a can of ice tea, and let him on his way.

If Zimmerman did indeed feel threatened by Trayvon, I imagine this was something to do with the fact that the young boy felt afraid and asked what Zimmerman was doing, considering he was being pursued by a strange man with a gun. I think the case here is more that Trayvon felt like the victim, and it was he, not Zimmerman, that was defensive. If there was a confrontation, surely Zimmerman initiated it when he chose to follow a seventeen year old down a dark street with a gun. He had a gun! I cannot stress this enough, the local vigilante who one day dreamed of joining the police force, followed a ‘suspicious’ teenager after being told to stay where he was, armed with a gun, and has not been charged with shooting the unarmed boy.

What the fuck.

All of this comes across as utterly unbelievable, and that’s before the question of a racially motivated shooting comes into play. Yeah, forgot to mention, Trayvon was African-American. George Zimmerman is not.

Have a think about Trayvon’s family, who right now are dealing with the high possibility that the man who shot their son dead is going to walk away without any consequences to his actions. Whether Zimmerman acted due to racial motivations or not, how can a man admit to killing a boy and still be considered innocent?

Read here for more information:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-trayvon-marti

Here is a link to an online petition calling to bring Zimmerman to justice:
http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-killer-of-our-son-17-year-old-trayvon-martin 

The Quest for the Holy Grail (a.k.a. ‘Where to Find a Decent Kebab’)

On Sunday, Ian and I embarked upon a search for a kebab. Not just any old, meat-on-a-skewer, cooked-on-a-grill kebab, but a full blown doner-in-a-pita-bread. It may come as a shock to you that the US (at least Texas and New Mexico) is massively lacking in late night kebab shops, which are so beautifully common in England. No cheesy chips, definitely no chips in gravy, and NO DONER KEBABS. (I know we all wake up after a night out and instantly regret that we even looked at a doner, let alone consumed one without any help and enjoyed it, but they are a late-night necessity and one that Dallas is lacking.)

America seems like the type of place where the calorie-filled, greasy doner meat would feel right at home; this is after all the home of the Big Mac, KFC, and also the location where, two years ago, I tried deep-fried butter (it was surprisingly good – don’t judge me). A large doner contains almost your entire daily recommended allowance of calories in just one meal, but sometimes, it’s the only thing that will do the trick.

Ian has lived in the US for nearly ten years now, and has been very sad about the lack of kebabs. Every time he came to visit us in St Albans, we’d always take him for a kebab - sometimes because we were nice and we knew he liked them, other times perhaps we were trying to use them as persuasive tools to make him move back to the UK. But anyway, when I moved to Dallas, it became our quest to find somewhere that provided at least a decent substitute. And find one, we did.

However, the place was about 14 miles from home, so we had a bit of a drive ahead of us. (Yes, we drove 14 miles for a kebab. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again – don’t judge me). On our way, we went to the British Emporium, a shop in North-West Dallas which sells British things like Twining’s tea, Cadbury’s chocolate, and real gravy (ahh, Bisto). Obviously I was like a kid in a candy shop; they had dairy milk! And wine gums! And things I didn’t even realise I missed, like Monster Munch and Branston pickle! I was very excitable, and skipped around the shop for a while, picking up jars and packets, exclaiming things like, ‘ooh, Marmite’, or ‘look! Chocolate digestives!’ and ‘oh my god, Shreddies!!’  I think I provided a lot of entertainment to the other customers.

Who knew a packet of polos would bring me such joy?

We left with a car full of goodies, from baked beans to Heinz cream of tomato soup, and headed off for kebabs. I’m not sure quite what I was expecting but the place was actually a Greek restaurant – I suppose I’d been imagining a dirty chip shop type place. But there it was on the menu, ‘gyros – meat sliced off our vertical broiler.’ (Broil means grill in America. Incidentally, grill often means fry. Grilled cheese is made in a frying pan, grilled burgers are made in a frying pan. America likes calories.) The kebab came as more of an actual meal, on a plate, with sides. Both of us were a bit bemused about using cutlery to eat it. Ian gave up in the end, said it didn’t feel right using a knife and fork on food that was invented to be eaten with fingers. But it was tasty! (The picture may not do it justice, but it was, I promise.) We even gave baby Jack some pita bread so he didn’t feel left out. We left feeling satisfied with our discovery, but the quest will continue, as 14 miles really is too far to travel for a kebab, even if it’s tasty. We’re going to try again soon at another place that’s a bit closer to home, but that didn’t open on Sunday.

Today, to continue my back-to-Britain experiences of the weekend, I started my day with a cup of tea and a hot cross bun :)

Oh, and on an irrelevant but amusing note, look at the name of this bridge! (In America, esp the south, Gaylord is an old family name, and has loads of things named in the family’s honour. But to me, an immature 22 year old, it’s just funny!)

General Life Update

Today it is 24˚C in Dallas and I am composing this, in my head, as I sit on the office balcony sunbathing. It’s a hard life, right? We don’t have patio furniture yet so I’m sitting on stone tiles which may as well be made from lava the amount they have burnt through my jeans. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had third degree burns on my rear-end right now!

Rooftop sunbathing/ass-burning location

I haven’t written in a little while as was waiting for something awe inspiring to be worth writing about. Two and a half weeks later, I have come to realize it’s up to me to make my fairly average life worth reading, awe or no awe. So here comes a brief update of my last few weeks, uneventful maybe, but as you all love me, read on anyway.

I guess I’ll work my way backwards. On Saturday I went to a black tie event at the Dallas Museum of Art. Having never been to a black tie event before, I had to 1) realize what was actually appropriate for a black tie do and 2) go shopping for an outfit as the aforementioned appropriateness was not fulfilled by anything in my short-skirted wardrobe (apparently mid-thigh length cocktail dresses are a no-no, who’d have thought it?!) I was actually very glad I chose classy over leggy as when I got to the event, the few people in short skirts stood out like sore thumbs, and the added tendency of theirs to not move from within five feet of the bar gave them a wide berth. *smug* It was a really fun night. There was exclusive entry into the museum’s latest exhibition, a live band, food, not to mention an open bar! I didn’t have a hangover the next day which probably means I didn’t make the most of the free booze but all in all, a winner.

Had a meeting on Friday for a charity event I’m going to help out with. It’s called Food for Thought, and I’m involved in the silent auction committee. The event is a celebrity chef charity event whose proceeds benefit Big Thought, one of the nation’s leading nonprofits focused on building partnerships that allow all children access to quality learning opportunities. www.bigthought.org  A silent auction, for those of you that don’t know, is when you bid for items  on a list next to the item at the event, rather than announcing out loud to the guy with the hammer who says ‘going, going, gone!’ To the Friends fans out there, think of the episode when Joey accidentally buys a boat. That’s a silent auction. My role is to basically ring up perfect strangers and ask them to donate things in the name of charity. I’ve also been put up for auction myself, which is a bit weird. I offered my accent as the thing to bid for, as the Americans go mad for it, and also I don’t believe in prostitution. (It’s a joke mum, I would have just been waitressing at someone’s dinner party or something.) The event is in September and is black-tie optional. I’m def opting in now I have the outfit!

Other than that, it’s been a normal two weeks. Dinner and/or drinks with various friends, a couple of nights out, babysitting my new favourite person ever (baby Jack). Still loving Dallas, still not missing English weather, and best of all, Josh booked his flights to come see me! Am determined to out-tan him. This may be difficult with my casper-like skin versus having relatives from Ghana but I’m going to try!!

Baby jack <3