Acquitted

I will just say that I am not baffled. I am not surprised. I am heartbroken, but I've been feeling that a lot lately. I just want to take this outside of the context of race for a minute and remind the judge, the detectives -- and yes, even the enraged -- that a crime is a crime, regardless of the color of the victim.

Man, my heart is breaking because of his children, his mother, his fiance. There will be no holiday, no birthday, no graduation passed without thought or tears running over the empty chair. There will be parents who poured their double shifts, their pleading arguments, their love, their life, and their exhaustion into making sure that their babies will walk the right path, knowing that at any moment, that path could be blocked by a trigger happy douchebag. My heartbreak does not stem from the fact that he was black. My anger, yes, but not the sadness that pepto-bismoled my chest as soon as I received the text this morning. I responded with a sigh. This is reality, folks.

I am so sorry that this happened to you. Money can not possibly make up for it. I will pray for all the Bells and Bells to be's.

I haven't been writing; I don't have a reason to offer you. I haven't been talking much, either. I'll come back when I have something to say worth sharing. All the epiphanies and profound tidbits I've had are being deposited into (still, a very small number of) comments sections and forums boards, or being formed on-the-spot and thrown up into real life conversations had around coffee, sunlight, blunts.

I've been craving good conversations, face to face. You down?