#Tuesday 4Trayvon

Day of Internet Action

for Trayvon Martin

Inspired by a group of bloggers from Philly, Tuesday, April 10th is the day bloggers across the country will band together as one voice to advocate for justice on behalf of Trayvon Martin and his family. With a grand jury set to convene and decide on an indictment of Travyon's killer, George Zimmerman, it is important to continue to bring attention to the case and inform the public of the need to pressure Florida authorities to make Zimmerman answer for his crime.

Here's how to use your blog to help:

 
• Write a blog post about the case. Take any angle you like. The legal case against Zimmerman, gun laws, racism in America, personal reflection, or whatever other creative ideas you have. Please email us if you need fact sheets and support materials.

 
• Share this with other bloggers in your network and ask them to raise their voices for Trayvon.

 
• Spread your posts via social media like Twitter and Facebook using the hashtags #tuesday4trayvon, #millionhoodies and #hoodiesup.

 
• Send your posts to @millionhoodies on Twitter or post them to our Facebook page. We will spread them across the internet.

 
• Use the hashtags and SEO terms #tuesday4trayvon and #millionhoodies so people can search for your posts.

 
• Ask your readers to sign the change.org petition created by Martin's family calling for justice for Trayvon.

Trayvon Martin and his family deserve justice. We need your help to keep their struggle in the spotlight until they receive it. Your help with #tuesday4trayvon will not only help keep pressure on the authorities, but also show solidarity with Trayvon's family at a time when they need support. Please join us. #hoodiesup

 

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Trayvon Killing Eyewitness

On CNN:

I Offered To Show Police

Scene Of The Crime,

They Declined

Ashleigh Banfield, substituting in for Anderson Cooper tonight, spoke to an anonymous eyewitness to the death of Trayvon Martin byGeorge Zimmerman about what she saw that night. She had already spoken out anonymously, but she came forward today with more information. She revealed that after the police brought her in for questioning, she offered to bring them to the scene of the crime and show them what happened, but they declined her offer.

RELATED: New Trayvon Martin Witness Speaks To Anderson Cooper About Night Of Shooting

She told Banfield that she heard two cries of help, the second one more of a “devastating, desperate” yell. She said she believes that the yell came from Martin, and heard them loudly arguing outside her window, even if she couldn’t precisely decipher what she was saying. When Banfield asked if it sounded like a confrontation, she agreed. The eyewitness did call 911 and mentioned that she did hear a gun went off. She described the experience as like watching a movie and telling the dispatcher what was happening outside her home, play-by-play.

At one point, she held up her phone near the screen door so the dispatcher could hear what was happening. Banfield asked, when the gun went off, who it looked like was on top. The eyewitness answered that it looked like “the larger man,” meaning Zimmerman, was on top of Martin. At one point, Zimmerman started walking closer to where the eyewitness could see him, but could not discern whether his face was bloodied or not. When she was called in for questioning by the police, she said their questions did not necessarily have some depth to them, but merely just them asking her for a basic recap of what happened.

She offered to take them to the location of the crime, but claims that they were not interested. Banfield pressed her to explain why, but she said the police could answer that question better than her. And, in fact, the lead investigator told her that she misheard, and that it was Zimmerman who cried for help, not Martin. Following a community meeting to discuss the issue, she said she contacted the police two more times, but they did not get back to her.

Watch the video below, courtesy of CNN:

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A Conversation With

Trayvon Martin's Mother

 

 

 

 

 

My dear friend Kathryn Milofsky arranged for me to speak with Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, and her attorney Benjamin Crump, today just before Passover. We had invited Trayvon's parents to our Passover seder, but as that could not be worked out I was grateful to speak to Ms. Fulton and offer her whatever words of comfort and healing I could muster.

The opposite turned out to be the case. It was I who found the conversation healing and inspirational and decided therefore, after asking her permission, to share it in a column this holiday weekend, holy to both Christians and Jews, even as I battle against the receding sun which will bring in the Sabbath and Passover and make it forbidden for me to write.

The conversation was not taped and I am writing from memory and I ask everyone's forgiveness, especially Ms. Fulton, if I have committed any errors. The quotations I have for Ms. Fulton are likewise done from memory.

Ms. Fulton thanked me for the column I wrote about her son in The Huffington Post. After expressing my heartfelt condolences on the tragic loss of her child, I asked her if she felt disappointed that some segments of our society may not understand the depth of her anguish.

She said that the key to understanding how she and her family felt was human empathy. Anyone who is a parent could appreciate what it might mean to lose a child, especially when they died under such appalling circumstances. To compound the pain, the feeling that there is no justice magnified the pain infinitely. She said that this was not an issue for the black or white communities or the political right or left. It was a human issue, an issue for all parents, an issue that concerns anyone who appreciates life and opposes senseless tragedy.

"I look at my older son, who is 21 years-old. And I see Travyon in him. And I keep on expecting Trayvon to come home. But he doesn't come home. And now, I have one son on earth, and one son in heaven. And I miss him."

I asked her if she felt any anger to George Zimmerman:

I have no time for anger. I don't want to grant it a place in my heart. I simply want justice. I don't hate him and I'm not angry at him. But my son died and we deserve to know what happened. It's not for the police to determine justice. It's for the courts. And we'll stand by what the court says. But that's what I'm focused on. We want an arrest. But it's not out of anger or hatred. I have too much to do to be sidetracked with any of that. But when your son dies and there isn't even an arrest, it makes it so much harder.

She uttered these words in a pained tone. She did not raise her voice. There was no malice or rancor. She spoke passionately and with deep conviction.

I asked her if she felt anger at God over her son's tragic death? She immediately quoted Proverbs 3:5, citing both chapter and verse: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

She said she was finding comfort in the verse. She does not question God. She was asking for understanding. "At first, I kept on asking why me, why Trayvon. But now I know that God has called Trayvon. He was chosen. His name is now known throughout the country and throughout the world. He is a symbol of the fight against injustice. People understand that there has to be fairness and righteousness. And they're learning it from Trayvon."

I told her that I was amazed that she quoted that verse. The first Hebrew word in the verse is Betach -- trust. It's my name, Boteach. And because my family name translates literally as Trust, I had chosen that verse as my main verse for my junior high school yearbook, and had adopted it as a mantra by which I had attempted to lead my life.

I asked her if she believed in America as a place of fairness and justice. She said she did. "But that's why this case is so important. If Trayvon can die and no one pays a price, it can be someone else's child next time. This isn't only about our family, it's about all families. It's about all children. Trayvon is everyone's child."

As she spoke I was reminded of Martin Luther King's famous words, "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

I asked her how her family was coping. She said the tragedy had drawn the entire family closer. They were sharing many family meals, they were comforting each other, finding solace in one another.

Forgive me for sounding clichéd, and I am writing quickly so what is in my heart is being translated directly on to the page. I must tell you, I found her words, her voice, her demeanor, her compassion, and conviction and uplifting. Here was a mother who had buried her son under the most tragic circumstances. Yet she spoke without rage, hatred, or spite. She spoke of feeling God's presence in her heart and in her life. She said that other parents had to understand her campaign. That if anything like this had happened to their children, they too would shake heaven and earth to demand justice.

Before ending the conversation, I told her that since I was a boy, when my mother was going through a painful divorce and she was befriended and loved by an African-American co-worker at her bank, I had always felt a kinship with the black community. I told her that the black and Jewish communities are united not by a shared history of pain or suffering, but a shared history of spiritual promise and social redemption. That through all our trials and tribulations our two communities had always turned to God as the rock of our salvation, finding solace in His loving embrace. She echoed the sentiment and spoke of the all-encompassing presence of God in her life.

We agreed that we would G-d willing meet up when she was in New York. As I ended the conversation I felt as though I had been speaking with a giant, a woman of extraordinary heart, though it be shattered into a million pieces.

Shmuley Boteach, America's Rabbi, is the international best-selling author of 27 books and has just Kosher Jesus. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. His website is www.shmuley.com.

>via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/sybrina-fulton-trayvon-ma...