Posted on 07/28/2013 12:47:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Zimmerman verdict sits like a stone in the guts of many Americans. We struggle to put our finger on what sickens us, but we know something feels really bad.
It wasn’t until I read Guy Farmer’s commentary (“Zimmerman trial marred by racial politics,” July 21) that I started to get it. Amid hundreds of words reviewing the facts of the case, which we all know by heart, Farmer reveals in 13 words what is wrong with the Zimmerman verdict: “Martin wasn’t an innocent young boy; he was a head taller than Zimmerman.”
In that profoundly disturbing sentence, Farmer demonstrates the deep, probably subconscious, generational and regional biases that fester in our complex American culture. In a sentence, Farmer absolves Zimmerman of the termination of a fellow human being’s existence and judges Martin guilty and culpable for his own death — because Martin was taller than Zimmerman.
That sentence makes me think about both Zimmerman and Martin in a new light.
Zimmerman, a 29-year-old man, possessed something — in addition to a gun — that the just-turned 17-year-old Martin did not possess — a fully developed prefrontal cortex.
In human beings, the maturation of the prefrontal cortex is not achieved until about 25 years of age. That gave Zimmerman an advantage over Martin in the areas of cognitive analysis, abstract thinking, problem solving, determining and evaluating consequences, calculating strategies in shifting or urgent circumstances, recognizing and controlling intense impulses and emotions, modulating behavior and considering complicated incoming information in fight-or-flight situations.
In other words, Zimmerman, almost twice Martin’s age, had a mature prefrontal cortex and a gun, while Martin had an immature prefrontal cortex still overruled by primitive limbic structures, a can of sweet tea, and Skittles.
Farmer sums up his analysis by quoting Reno attorney David Houston: “This was a case where [Zimmerman] forced a confrontation, but did what he had to do when he was attacked.”
Houston’s words reveal what makes our guts clench when we realize the sickening abdication of Zimmerman’s personal and social responsibility as a grown man in a position of power. Using Houston’s logic, maybe Martin did what he had to do when he was confronted — or more accurately, maybe Martin did what his immature prefrontal cortex thought he should do.
So if Farmer is suggesting that 29-year-old Zimmerman was frightened for his life, I am suggesting that 17-year-old Martin was too. But Zimmerman possessed all the ammunition to prevent this tragedy.
We’ll never know exactly what happened that night. According to Farmer, Martin wasn’t followed and killed because he was black, but because he was tall and therefore not innocent. And therein lay the convoluted and absurd rationalizations being offered to justify the uninvited confrontation and subsequent killing of an unarmed, immature, and yes, innocent boy by an armed, mature man.
The gnawing in our gut confirms that something is wrong here: In the case of George Zimmerman, the law may be satisfied, but justice is not.
Allergic to facts, it appears.
Someone in power in this country has to step up and start telling the truth about this case. Apparently a large portion of the country has the cognitive ability of stump.
There was Z*E*R*O evidence presented that Zimmerman initiated any confrontation. By his own conversation with Jeanteel, he ran away. Zimmerman said he ran off. Zimmerman was ON THE PHONE with the police and gave NO indication that he ran at all.
HOW DID THEY HAVE A CONFRONTATION? Martin was an athletic 17 year old football player. Zimmerman was an unathletic, overweight guy.
The only reason there was a confrontation is because Martin didn’t go home, but hid and waited on Zimmerman.
Who confronted who?
Another sure way to arrest development of the prefrontal cortex is to make someone into a tenured liberal arts professors at a liberal college surrounded by liberals — in this case an anti-military English professor.
Nothing is gnawing at my gut... what is he talking about?.. and frankly, i believe we do know what happened that night... people keep saying we will never know...
Professor Marilee Swirczek = educated fool.
The only thing "gnawing at my gut" is the incessant hand-wringing and gnashing-of-teeth over the Zimmerman verdict.
My 14 year old would not beat an armed man’s head into the pavement, and his prefrontal whatever is less developed than Trayvon’s.
Next?
“Martin wasn’t an innocent young boy; he was a head taller than Zimmerman.”
This silly tw@t just doesn’t get it.
God made man. Colt made them equal.
He was home free until he decided to turn around and go back after GZ. It was GZ who was being tracked.
Fixed it.
Zimmerman had a mature prefrontal cortex and ESP...I guess.
“This was a case where [Zimmerman] forced a confrontation”
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Joseph Goebbels
What a steaming pile of Barbara Streisand.
Professor Marilee Swirczek of Western Nevada College will now be receiving her federal grant to study rain water effects on sandstone formations.
He was home, then circled back and jumped Zimmerman. He was itching for a fight to put another notch in his belt. He was probably going to put the whoop ass on Z, then brag to his fellow thugs how he took out a crazy ass cracka.
Was thinking the same thing!
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