Remembering Trayvon, No More Zimmermans

Joseph Santos-Lyons

I can not trust a system that is not willing to protect people of color.

Update: Vigil at Peninsula Park in North Portland Sunday 4p.

I can not trust a system that is not willing to protect people of color.

My communities of pastors, human rights activists and neighbors are reeling from the news this evening that Zimmerman was found not guilty for the killing of young teenager Travyon Martin in Florida. A culture clash of values at work, wrapped in a racialized media blanket and a desensitized American public that persistently dehumanizes people of color while fueling fear and militant individualism. This is why we need to keep coming together.

I offer a short compilation of quotes and prayers, and this one from my Unitarian Universalist tradition by Rev. Meg Riley this evening:

Spirit of love and justice, Tonight I am angry. May my anger burn cleanly, Joining the light of so many hearts on fire. May we know anger as a source of strength, Anger that seeks to purify, Anger that has as its fuel the power of truth, Anger grounded in love, May I live my life so that Trayvon Martin did not die in vain.

May my anger give me strength to take action, To stand my own ground, the ground of compassion, The ground of justice which dwells beyond courts of law and its technicalities, The ground of worth and dignity of every human being.

May we live our lives so that Trayvon Martin did not die in vain, So that African American youth are not seen as threatening merely because they exist. May we take steps to bring such a world into vision. Concrete steps, particular steps, in our own communities.

Anger used well is energy for life. Anger turned inward saps the strength, Anger turned to rage severs real connection. May I use this holy anger well, Use my privilege well, use my voice and my strength and my power.

May we draw on the strength of those who have turned anger to love through the generations, those who have made a way out of no way, those who have burned but not been consumed by this holy fire.

May we remember the strength of our connections to the generations, The ancestors and those yet to be born, The strength of our connection to the fighters and the lovers,

May I live my life so that Trayvon Martin did not die in vain. May we live our lives so that Trayvon Martin did not die in vain. May he live forever in our deeds, in our commitment to a justice Which can never be found in any court of law.

By Joseph Santos-Lyons July 13, 2013