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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Why Do Christopher Lane and Delbert Belton Matter Less Than Trayvon Martin?

I find it interesting how very little has been said about the recent spate of senseless random murders that have been plaguing this country. The Trayvon Martin death and subsequent trial of George Zimmerman filled my Facebook feed daily. People were outraged. Yes, had Zimmerman done what he had been told-  not to pursue- Trayvon would still be alive. I wish that were the case.  He didn't deserve to die, but he wasn't the 'innocent' that everyone portrayed him to be, and we will never know exactly what went down the night Trayvon and George crossed paths during Zimmerman's neighbourhood watch patrol. But not a peep on Facebook about Australian baseball player Christopher Lane who also didn't deserve to die, and deserves as much, if not more, attention.

In Lane's case, three evil Oklahoman reprobates gunned him down while he was jogging because they were "bored" and just felt like they wanted to kill someone. Sure Christopher Lane was white, and two of his killers- 15-year-old James Edwards Jr. and 16-year-old Chancey Luna- are black, (Michael Jones, 17, who is being charged as an accessory looks like he might be bi-racial), and Edwards had posted "anti-white" statements on his Twitter feed, but this goes beyond race. It also goes beyond the gun control issue. If these kids had wanted to kill someone that night, and they didn't happen to have a gun, they would have found a way to accomplish their goal.  Look at the two Spokane, Washington teens who beat octegenarian World War II vet Delbert "Shorty" Belton so severely he later died. No gun, no knife, just their hands. They too were teens. Kenan Adams-Kinard and Demetrius Glenn, both sixteen, allegedly robbed Belton.

Who knows if race had anything to do with Christopher Lane or Delbert Belton being targeted. Maybe, maybe not. But I do know it has everything to do with raising a generation of conscienceless kids who have absolutely no moral compass. Kids who are influenced by the violent music they listen to and the violent video games they play. Kids who are obviously not taught to respect others.

Why isn't Barack Obama as outraged about these random killings as he was about Trayvon Martin's death?  Why isn't Jesse Jackson weighing in on the issue? Why do none of my Facebook 'friends'  seem to care about Belton and Lane? 

We need to address the issue of teen violence.

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