A moment that has defined our year. A moment that might have defined our generation. A moment that occurred on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. A moment when a 17-year-old young man was walking home with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea in his hands, approached by another man with a Keltek 9mm semi-automatic gun whose trigger was pulled, releasing one bullet that pierced the heart of Trayvon Martin, killing him within minutes. This moment shattered the soul of our nation.
The accused killer George Zimmerman will stand trial for a charge of second-degree murder. This morning, the date was set. June 10, 2013. Three weeks is all it will take to go through evidence, testimony, opening and closing arguments, and ultimately a verdict. The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the date was Mitt Romney. I know, I couldn’t believe I was thinking about Mitt Romney. But, I couldn’t help but think, what if Mitt Romney is President in 2013. What if Mitt Romney is the President during this trial. A President would preside over our country who lacks the understanding and empathy to collectively move us forward after this trial is done.
When asked how he would curb gun violence in America last night during the debate, he began by saying, “I’m not in favor of new pieces of legislation on — on guns and taking guns away or making certain guns illegal.” He then went on to ramble about single mothers and how children out of wedlock are the ones to blame. Single mothers? Como say what? Mr. Romney, I hate to break it to you, but George Zimmerman wasn’t born out of wedlock. James Holmes wasn’t born out of wedlock. Seng Hui-Cho wasn’t born out of wedlock. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold weren’t born out of wedlock. Jared Loughner wasn’t born out of wedlock. Your ignorance on this subject was glaring, as it was throughout the entire night.
Gov. Romney doesn’t have a damn clue on how we will curb the violence that is killing our country. As President Obama rightly pointed out last night, ” I think Governor Romney was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it. And he said that the reason he changed his mind was, in part, because he was seeking the endorsement of the National Rifle Association.” This man will play politics with the lives of our young people for a few bucks from some guys who cling to their guns tighter than they cling to our children. “Money” Mitt already got $250 million dollars stashed away with a pension much bigger than any of ours, and he is still for sale like a Nascar driver.
While a guy walks into a movie theater with a 100 round drum attached to a weapon of war, Romney is smoking cigars with his boys counting his dead Presidents. While dead kids lay in the streets of Chicago, Romney is telling his rich friends that those kids don’t matter anyway, cause they weren’t gonna vote for him. While voters ask questions about violence, women, immigrants, veterans and students, Romney makes up answers and stories that only the ignorant few will believe.
This is no time for us to go backwards in America. This is no time for a President who doesn’t understand the struggles of everyday Americans. This is no time to sit out an election and allow a man to win who doesn’t care about half this country. This is our time. This is our future. This is our chance to re-elect a President who will uplift this nation and inspire all of us to keep our hoodies up. Our work is not done. Justice for Trayvon. Four more years for Barack!
~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
