Trayvon: Send Not For Whom the Bell Tolls

Young man, African-American, in a dark hoodie sweatshirt. Very suspicious? A specter demanding self-defense?

Barack Obama said Friday that "every aspect" of the death of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager shot in Florida last month, must be investigated.

"My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said. "I think that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and we're going to get to the bottom of what happened . . . Obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."

Meanwhile, on Friday, students at several South Florida high schools, near the Martin household, staged walkouts in protest since there have been no arrests in the case.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in humankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

                --  John Donne, 1624 c.e.

No matter what more transpires, there will be no satisfying outcome to this episode. The travesties of racial divides and barely unfettered gun violence have struck again -- and will go on. For some reason, I am reminded of the Casey and Caylee Anthony case this morning. Florida, Orlando area, power confronts naivete. Is it true, what Donne also said?

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

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