I have prayed with the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and the non-believers. I have celebrated Passover, the end of Ramadan and Easter. I have sat in churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and the homes of beautiful, religious people all around the world. I have prayed. I continue to pray. I believe in prayer. And today, I pray to you, God, that you hear this prayer and let us all know that there is no way in hell that it was your plan to kill Trayvon Martin.
George Zimmerman said it was your plan. The guy who pulled a 9mm gun that rainy night in Sanford, Florida, said last night on TV, that it was your plan. Said he had no regrets. No regrets about getting out of the car. No regrets about having a gun. No regrets. No regrets about shooting an unarmed teenager with one bullet in his chest that put an end to his life.
Forgiveness. We seek to forgive. But as Trayvon’s father said this morning, “To ask us if we will forgive a guy who doesn’t even regret taking our son’s life is just too much to ask right now.” Maybe one day, but just not now. Not at this moment, not at this time. Not after what Mr. Zimmerman said last night. His words last night did not help him and did not help us. George Zimmerman will be put through our justice system and we will assume he is innocent until proven guilty. However, we will not accept that this was your plan, just cause he said it. We will not accept that a young man’s life was cut short because a man holding a gun didn’t like the way he walked or how he looked. All of the good books teach us those lessons about judgment…by now we should have gotten the message.
I never got a chance to meet Trayvon, so you tell him hello for me. Tell him that we got our hoodies up and that we will continue to seek justice for his family. Tell him that LeBron wrote his name on his shoes. Tell him the President of the United States said if he had a son, he would look like him. Tell him that strangers, complete strangers, people him nor I ever met, marched in streets all across this country because of him. Tell him his friends miss him…really, really miss him. Tell him that his mother, father and brother are some of the most incredible people in the world…I am sure he already knows that. But, please just remind him.
And God, one more thing…if you are not going to listen to my prayer, please listen to the words of Trayvon’s father, Tracy, “We must worship a different God, because there’s no way MY God would have wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son.”
~Michael Skolnik
Michael Skolnik is the Editor-In-Chief of GlobalGrind.com and the political director to Russell Simmons. Prior to this, Michael was an award-winning filmmaker. Follow him on twitter @MichaelSkolnik
