Lighter, somehow you missed that Martin was walking back from a convenience store to where he was visiting in the gated community with his father and his father's fiance. No need to come up with a different "innocent explanation" for his walking in the neighborhood or say "we'll never know" why he was there.

pdq, of course there are many more murders in this world than this one. Certainly there are many more unjust acts. Your logic doesn't follow, however. (Bill D could probably cite the particular fallacy of your argument.) It's impossible to see them all. Do you think that this case is any less than those others? [As others have said while I was composing this,] This case has a particular combination of factors involved that excite people's interest and involvement.

For me, having a son of the same age as Trayvon Martin, it is the impact of putting myself in the place of his parents, considering what his death in such circumstances would mean to me, and contemplating our luck to be born white in this country, instead of black.

You say: "This shooting (not yet classified as murder, BTW) took place 28 days ago." Yeah. And initially NOTHING was going to happen. No further investigation. It took three days for the parents to find that their son was in the morgue, despite him having a cell phone with "Dad" among the contacts. That's just a start.

I think that this is a case that for many African Americans has added just enough heat to an existing fire to cause the pot to boil over. So many have cited personal experience of either being suspected of or charged with criminal intent without any reason other than their race, or even lost friends or relatives in comparable situations.

People have some hope that if some justice can be done here, or at least light shown on the issue, it might reduce the chances of something similar from happening in the future. Faint hope, perhaps. But worth it.

[Since I always seem to post a link, I'll link the Wikipedia page for the case, which seems to have a pretty carefully referenced rundown of the facts: Shooting of Trayvon Martin.]

~ Becky in Long Beach