Founding Fathers words should not be taken as gospel (Opinion)

All Voices ^ | August 12, 2013 | Barry Ellsworth, retired Canadian journalist

[2ndDivisionVet]

George Zimmerman should be disarmed.

If ever a man deserved to be shunned by society, it is pudgy Georgie Zimmerman.

And in some quarters, he is.

Unfortunately, there are enough of his ilk around – the big guns who run the National Rifle Association, conservative talk radio Obama haters and others – who quickly and emphatically drew the besieged Floridian into their warm and fuzzy protective cocoon of right-wing fanaticism.

The ink was not even dry on the long-delayed Zimmerman arrest warrant when the NRA brass leaped to his defense because he fulfilled their classic gunfighter role model — a little armed man who took no guff from anyone and plugged a large male disguised in a hoodie, likely intent on a criminal act. The Lone Ranger rides again and he will defend the Second Amendment with Tonto’s dying breath.

Others, like AM radio talk show conservative buffoons in the form of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, quickly assumed that liberal-thinking Americans (read Democrats) would be appalled that a black unarmed teenager had been gunned down and, of course, rode to the shooter’s side, firing verbal bullets at those demanding Zimmerman be tried in court.

And make no mistake, without that loud and long collective demand for justice, our boy Georgie would never have seen the inside of a jail cell or courtroom.

The subsequent trial and acquittal, to paraphrase the great American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt talking about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, will be a decision “which will live in infamy.”

That was the speech where Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war. This time around, it refers to a declaration of blatant racism – Zimmerman may not be all white, but he looks it – and an indictment of unnecessary gun violence.

There is a common factor between the far right members of the tea party, the NRA and conservative radio mouthpieces. They all believe the Founding Fathers, like the pope, are infallible. Although the Founding Fathers have been dead for more than two centuries, their words are revered like the Holy Grail.

In actual fact, while their writings contain much wisdom and are in many cases lyrical in nature, the dads of the United States were ultra-conservative – the norm considering the times in which they lived – and some, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were slave owners. The Founding Fathers were products of their era.

Society evolves and laws change to reflect the evolution. It is no longer permissible to “own” anyone else. Now, some kind of gun control, like background checks, needs to be implemented. And justice for all, no matter the skin color, must become the law of the land, not just in word but in fact.

The point is, they were the greatest men of their time, but times change, and it is also time to see through the veil of myth and view the Founding Fathers through the eyes of reality.

There is another reality and it is that while the acquittal in the Trayvon Martin killing may be justified under Florida law, Zimmerman got away with murder – and he still carries a gun.

There is an excellent article by Allvoices Anchor Herbert Dyer, Jr. on how the Zimmerman trial may have been rigged in the defendant’s favor. The link, and others, appears below.

[Arm_Bears]

Who gives a cr@p what a Canuck has to say about US rights?

[x]

Zimmerman may not be all white, but he looks it ...

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Barry Ellsworth of the Trenton Trentonian (Trenton, Ontario) really knows from white ...

[cloudmountain]

Heh, heh. My mother always told me if I don't have something nice to say about somebody, call him an asshole.

Your mother was right.
Isn't it a great word?
Clint Eastwood says that word the VERY best of anyone. He makes it about 25 different syllables. Great stuff.