I’ve never been a fashion plate. I am a middle aged woman who dresses for comfort, not style. I prefer jeans over dresses, whether I’m dining at a four star restaurant or the Silver Diner. I wear black turtlenecks in the winter, because I get cold. And ever since I entered menopause, I’ve worn a hoodie. Why not wear a nice jacket or a pretty sweater like most women of a certain age? I wear a hoodie because I have hot flashes. I spend most of my days performing the same routine: hoodie on, hoodie off. When the hoodie is off, I tie it around my waist, thus creating a waistline and covering my butt at the same time. When I am very cold I can don the hood to keep me warm. I even installed a special rack in my bedroom for my hoodies. Since I buy my hoodies in the misses department of Macy’s or the sportswear department of Target, I never realized that I was in danger of being categorized as a “gangsta” by my choice of dress. Or is there more to the story?

Recently I have been sickened by the news about the Trayvon Martin shooting. We all heard the 911 call. Zimmerman was told not to follow the boy. He ignored that instruction. Frankly it shouldn’t matter what happened after that. Florida’s “stand your ground” law doesn’t apply. Zimmerman was in pursuit. It’s absolutely impossible for a pursuer to plead self defense. So why no investigation? Where is the justice? What the hell is wrong with this world? Even if a police officer shot someone, especially an unarmed child, there would be an investigation. If a battered woman shot her husband claiming self-defense, there would be an investigation. In this case, I don’t understand why there was no investigation.

I watched the news reports. I saw the family on Anderson Cooper’s show. I watched Jon Stewart’s delayed reaction to the news and I was sickened that there was nothing I could do. I can’t bring Trayvon back. I can’t change the law. I just sat in front of my TV, day after day thinking, what the hell is wrong with this country? Why do so many people feel they need to carry a gun? Do they have someone in particular that they need to defend themselves from? Are they afraid someone will break in their house and steal their flat screen TV? Do they feel their TV is worth taking a life? Are they worried someone will mug them on the street and try to take their wallet? Is their wallet that valuable? Credit cards can be cancelled with no penalty at all. I don’t understand.

As a child I was taught, when I go into the city, carry some mugging money. At the time it was around $10 or $20 dollars. I should have something to make the mugger happy, but not bankrupt me. I was told if I was in trouble or needed help, I should look for a police officer. Someone in uniform would help me. When the news reported so many black people were told by their parents to “cooperate with the police” or to “keep quiet”, I started wondering if we living in two different worlds? Aren’t police officers there to help people of all colors? Am I that naïve? Yes, I remember the Rodney King beating. I thought that was the exception, not the rule. Was I so wrong there?

I ask again, why do so many people carry guns? Why to they allow guns in bars? Who is the genius who thought mixing fire arms and alcohol was a good thing? What if a shooting broke out on the Washington Metro or the New York subways? On a bus? Should we install metal detectors everywhere? What if George Zimmerman didn’t own a gun? What if he had stayed home that night watching the news? What if he just looked out of his window and reported suspicious activity like other neighborhood watch people do? Bottom line though is, why the gun? I hope my neighborhood watch people don’t carry guns.

I knew there was nothing I could do so I just sat and watched, complaining to my husband, what the hell is wrong with these people? and why aren’t they investigating?, until I heard one of the most ignorant statements I’ve ever heard in my life from Geraldo Rivera. The “hoodie worn by unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was as much responsible for his death as the neighborhood watch captain who shot him.”

The friggin’ hoodie? Like the eighty year old rape victim was dressed too provocatively? I wear hoodies. I turned on the news and saw millions of people, all dressed in hoodies like I wear, displaying solidarity for a slain victim of our misguided gun laws.

According to Wikipedia there were 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.^[4] The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,^[5] with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths.^[6]

What about the massacre at Virginia Tech or the school shooting at Chardon, Ohio? When is someone going to do something about the killings? When will there be an end to the violence? When will we learn to “just say no” to guns?

I grieve for Treyvon Martin’s family. I grieve for all the victims of violence. Maybe we can’t legislate an end to bigotry, but we can do something about gun laws. Some say guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I say people with guns are more likely to kill people, or themselves. What if we laid down our guns and learn to let the police officers do their job?

 I won’t rest until Zimmerman is brought to trial.