Trayvon Williams tragedy(not)

[David Morris]

Discuss the word tragedy all you want.  Just leave this boy's murder out of it.

On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have to say that playing literary word games with this boy's murder seems callous to me.
>> Just sayin'...
>
> first, please pardon me if I gave any offense.
>
> But literary word games are pretty important to me.
>
> I'm writing in a forum where none of us is personally acquainted with
> either of the persons (please let me know if that's wrong), and which
> is dedicated to literary contemplations.
>
> I'm following up on my original post that started the thread in which
> I used the term "tragedy" and refining what I think the tragedy of the
> situation is.
>
> Trayvon (afaik) didn't do anything wrong.  His plight and the
> community problems surrounding it are being addressed by persons more
> versed in those matters - as I expressed a hope for originally - thank
> goodness!
>
> I think anyone with a heart would be moved by what happened to him.
> That's not in dispute, and I will participate in solidarity to the
> best of my ability.  It's a sorrow, it's a shame, it's a cause.
>
> But the tragedy, in Joyce's terms, is a person with good intentions
> taking on inappropriate authority.  There is so much that excites pity
> and terror in me:
>
> a) that terrible feeling when one becomes conscious that one has made
> a grievous error
> b) the societal trends pushing gun ownership, Florida's
> stand-your-ground law, racism, and for that matter, the criminals who
> made a neighborhood watch seem necessary
> c) the difficulty a young person has finding a place in society and
> the way he apparently adopted the Neighborhood Watch as way too big a
> part of his reason for existing
> d) the apparent coverup by the Sanford police
> e) Zimmerman's future - what will happen to him in prison?
>
> The person whose conscious actions can be said to be the proximate
> cause of a tragic occurrence is the tragic protagonist.
> The problems that need to be addressed are the problems that this
> person demonstrated.