2000 years and we have learned NOTHING!

   Watching the Trayvon Martin trial conclusion it deeply saddens me to see how many in the public have reacted.  To see people denigrate the decision of 6 jurors who sat through HOURS of testimony and were sequestered in a hotel for 22 days is deplorable.   Did they sit and watch every question and answer made in the trial?   Did they listen to the expert witnesses who showed that all the forensic evidence pointed to the fact that Trayvon was on TOP and Zimmerman was on the BOTTOM and this corroborated the eye-witness testimony of the person who say the fight and went to call the police?  What if things were reversed and Zimmerman was black and Martin was white (or hispanic)?  Would they still feel the same way about the ruling?

   It pains me even more to see people like Juan Williams go on Fox News and argue that the jury needed to make an emotional decision rather than a decision based on the facts in the case.  Really Juan???   Should we throw out "reasonable doubt" too?   While we're at it, let's just throw out the whole trial-by-jury system completely too since obviously you don't think we are smart enough to decide cases like this anymore.

   2000 years and nothing has changed...

   Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate by a group of people who were through hearing what he had to say.  They trumped up some charges, whipped up the peoples fear that Jesus was a threat to their temple and their way of life causing them to cry out for the release of a notorious murderer.   Pilate, still feeling the pain of rebuke he received from Rome after he horribly handled a riot in the previous year, was in fear for his job as governor.   Even during his questioning of Jesus, he asks Jesus the amazing question "What is Truth?". A question of course he doesn't care to debate on.  After all, he had a riot in the making and now was not the time to debate. All that mattered to Rome was "results".


     What is truth today?

     Is it the evidence provided by the lawyers and decided upon by a jury of common people?

     Is it a nefarious scorecard, kept by political pundits and race-baters who say "It's one for the White team"  or "It's one for the Black team"?

     Is it the 5 year-old pictures used by the media to promote Trayvon as a "squeaky-clean" teen with nothing to hide rather than pictures of him as a 17 year-old, playing with guns, smoking pot and being in fights at school?

     Is it what brings you applause when your standing up on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans (like Stevie Wonder, or Bruce Springsteen?) 

     Is it what our President tells us when he tries to tie himself emotionally to the tragedy by saying "this could be him 35 years ago"?

    The Truth is ultimately what God sees. 

    Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don't (it's not perfect, but it's the best we have).  Only Zimmerman and God knows exactly what happened that night.  The rest of us can only guess.  Zimmerman will have to walk through the rest of his life knowing he took a life and whether there was another answer or not.   That will be his "cross to bear".  

    It's been 2000 years and still people want "street justice" that is swift and easy.  They say, "Don't confuse me with the facts!  A 17 year-old boy was killed by a grown man".  They say, "Where is justice for Trayvon's parents?"   They cry out with pleas of  "No Justice! No Peace!"   Does this sound like "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"  ?

     It does to me.