Killing Trayvon Martin

The fact that this young man was killed and the circumstances of that homicide should be disturbing to all of us. I do not doubt for a moment that race was involved, but this is not strictly a racial issue. This homicide strikes at the very heart and soul of our society, our sense of justice, fairness, and basic decency. When you have the NRA and the Republican Party preying on paranoia they are inviting violence. Do we really want a society in which the fastest gun rules the streets? Do we really want laws that allow killers to escape justice by merely claiming they were defending themselves without having to offer any evidence that they were threatened? We cannot have a society in which a police officer or a private individual can act as the judge, jury, and executioner. We are either a society of just laws that protect all of us or we are not!