Let me finish tonight with this.
The American people were not, collectively, sitting on the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman. They were not asked to judge whether the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the second degree murder of Trayvon Martin.
But we are, all of us, jurors in what kind of country we want to live in.
We are jurors in whether we want profiling or want people to be judged on what they do and not what they look like.
We are jurors in whether we want people, civilians, walking around carrying guns, believing they have the right to decide where to carry the gun, in what situations they can use the confidence a gun gives you to operate as if they were trained and sworn-in officers of the law. We can decide on all kinds of matters of social justice and economic fairness, all kinds of ways to make this a better country, a fairer country, a more reasonable country where the laws favor less violence, not more. There is hope. Yes, there’s hope if we pay attention to what we can improve, what we can do, how we can it, how successfully we can make this a better country for the Trayvon Martins who still live and yes, have reason for hope — perhaps, in small ways, because of his great loss.
Chris Matthews Recommended
