Trayvon Martin

When I first heard about the murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin I was upset.  I instantly thought how incredibly senseless of an act for someone to commit and how awful for his loved ones but I also couldn’t understand the media out cry about it.  Even the president made a speech.  As insensitive as this sounds I was thinking that this happens every single day so what was all the commotion about.  I realized quickly that NO this should receive attention.  He’s a young man walking to store minding his business and whether he looked suspicious  was irrelevant.  Whether he carried a gun or was selling drugs is also irrelevant.   Neighborhood watch is designed to monitor activity in a community and report danger or problems to the proper authorities.  Not go out and take care of the situation yourself or in this case lack thereof.   To the best of my knowledge the man in question still has not been arrested and I am having a difficult time understanding this.  He killed someone end of the story whether or not it was in self-defense, protection of his home, out of anger, out of hate, etc.  Why isn’t he being held accountable for his actions?  I’m glad that this unfortunate situation is bringing brought to light but I’m sorry that a young man had to die in order for people to see just how unjust the system is and how hateful the world still is.  I hope that something positive comes out of this and not more violence.  We need to stick together no matter what.  Race, color, religion should not be the basis for anger.  We all have something positive to learn from one another. 

Tiger Lilly

For weeks my sister noticed a kitten eating from a dumpster where she lives.  After crossing paths with the kitten on numerous occasions it become clear that she was an orphan or a stray.  As a mother or a Good Samaritan my sister began trying to get the kitten to follow her home.  She felt horrible that someone neglected the kitten in the dead of winter.  A week or so passed and the kitten finally followed my sister into her apartment.  She began feeding her and providing her with proper warmth and shelter.  My sister fell in love with the little kitten almost instantly and so did my niece and nephew.  So they decided to adopt her and named her Tiger Lilly.  A couple of weeks later my sister realized that Tiger Lilly was pregnant.  Fortunate or unfortunately she not only rescued a stray but was now faced with the possibility of kittens.  I remember playfully laughing at her and saying something like “WOW you would be lucky enough to rescue a pregnant kitten.”  Again my sister surprises me and decides to take on yet another duty that someone else neglected to be responsible for.  After bringing Tiger Lilly to the vet she learned the she is in fact pregnant with two kittens and that everything looked great and on track.  At this time the office gave Tiger Lilly a rabies vaccine.  When it was time for her to have her babies something wasn’t right.  Tiger Lilly was bleeding and crying and my sister was panicked.  Something clicked in her head that something was terribly wrong.  So she decided to do her own investigation and found that pregnant cats should not be vaccinated.  Discretely enough she called around to other offices to ask if in fact this were true and every place that she called confirmed that they would not vaccinate a pregnant cat.  My sister learned that vaccinating a pregnant cat could lead to mutation and or spontaneous abortion.  We later learned in confidence that it’s not uncommon for some offices to knowingly do this to prevent over population, potential strays, etc.  With that said Tiger Lilly now had to be rushed in for emergency surgery (which was very expensive).  Tiger Lilly did in fact lose her kittens but she was spared and able to go home.  I was completely outraged at the thought of this being a possibility.  If this was as a result to the vaccination they gave her I find it difficult to believe that their motives were not a direct act to terminate her pregnancy.  To me this is very morally wrong and rather upsetting.  Whether Tiger Lilly was a stray or a now adopted kitten didn’t my sister have a say in the matter?  Didn’t Tiger Lilly?  Either way, I’m so proud of my sister for what she did.  She took in a stray kitten and her babies and then had to pay for an unexpected emergency surgery out of love and kindness for the new member of her family.  She’s remarkable in my eyes and never for one second did she want to back out of any of it like someone else had.

A hero?!

A couple of weeks ago we were reading and discussing in class whether or not it was morally wrong not to intervene when we can.  We discussed someone walking by a small child drowning in a shallow pool of water.  That shallow pool of water did not necessarily pose a health risk or immediate danger to the adult but if the adult chose not to intervene the child would die.

There was recently a tragic school shooting in Ohio where a coach is insisting he is not a hero and is just a football coach and study hall teacher after he intervened in the shooting.  In the time of the events the coach ran after the teenage gunman, putting his life on the line in an attempt to stop the gunman from injuring any more people or even himself (the gunman).  After that he comforted the teens as they were laying there dying.  “I prayed with them.” “I wiped their tears and I know that God was with them.”

In this instance this man’s life was in immediate danger but he chose to intervene.  I do not think that it would have been morally wrong for him to have been naturally scared for his life and ran in the other direction.  Instead he felt that it was his duty not as a professional but as a person to intervene and do what he could to protect the students around him.  “One should always do what you think is the right thing to do.”

In this event the coach intervening quite possibly helped save lives and prevented more deaths from happening.  Whether or not he is a “hero” is debatable I suppose.  The coach himself even argues that or perhaps is a humble man just doing what he thought was the right thing to do.  But in any case the coach, other teachers, staff members and health care professionals all went to great lengths to protect their students and to me that’s very courageous and commendable.