So I admit, I was fairly lost on what I wanted my final opinion piece this semester to include. I’m not saying every opinion piece is a chance to let my blind rage about a particular subject item fill half of a newspaper page, but expressing my joy about a particular item doesn’t exactly translate well on paper outside of two sentences. This may say a lot about my personality, but I’m getting away from the point.
Just when I thought all was relatively decent in the world, and that things just might be (albeit temporarily) okay, I wake up to news that I knew, but never actually thought I would hear.
George Zimmerman has been released on bond.
Now, if you’re mentally brave enough to still admit to this day that you have no idea who George Zimmerman is, I’m certain that Google’s servers will be operating at full functionality when you read this and you might need to know who he is before continuing to read this particular piece.
As of the time this is written, Zimmerman will be released on $150,000 bond which his family, if they go through a bail bondsman, will have to pay ten percent of, and Zimmerman goes home under a long list of conditions until the trial of the summer begins.
As I scrolled my Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites, the obvious outrage filled each page I clicked on. I’m not one to scream and yell on the internet in an unintelligible manner, I did point out two things that bothered me on both ends. Not only did I expect this to happen, but you should have also. Let me explain.
I love when people have selective amnesia. It seems to have been forgotten that it took the great state of Florida over a month to even arrest Zimmerman. This tidbit of information here alone should give the average person enough reason to know that whatever legal happenings take place regarding this case were going to be scandalous at best.
I think a lot of people never put together how the ridiculous laws that protected Zimmerman would actually come out to play in a situation that “warrants” it. Every day, we watch lawmakers across the nation pass laws that basically bring us one step closer to the events of Children of Men, and those are the things that we need to be more aware of at the polls.
Without a shadow of doubt, those of us who thought Zimmerman’s arrest would lead to a trial, conviction and sentencing in thirty minutes or less need to take one more look at how the American judicial system works. We can’t watch people in power do foul things all the time, and then cry foul when they do it again. This has to stop on both ends.
We as a people need to be more aware of the law and how it affects our day to day living, and the law also needs to be held accountable by the people for the wrongdoing that they do to us tax-paying citizens. When will it end? When will it stop? It starts with you.