On the night of February 26, 2012 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman as he walked home from the convenience store after purchasing some snacks. There was a public outcry and after 44 days Zimmerman was arrested for the murder.

Yesterday George Zimmerman was found “NOT guilty” of murdering Trayvon Martin by six female jurors five white and one Hispanic and Black.

There were calls for calm, prayer and peace from people across the racial and political spectrum. There were calls to respect the law, and here lies our conundrum.

Peace loving and law abiding citizens, embrace the law, they do everything within their power to obey the law, because the laws separate us from the animals of the wilds, but for our entire existence as human beings, our laws have failed us.

The law failed not only the family of Trayvon Martin, but all of us, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Jews, Muslims, and Gentiles. It is incumbent upon us all to demand justice because it brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) who was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

At some time in the not so distant past:
• It was lawful to own slaves, American Presidents did.
• It was lawful in Germany to round up tens of thousands of people and exterminate them
• It was lawful to burn people at the stake in England if they were thought to be witches
• It was lawful to move for one country to another, plant a flag and declare it belonging to the King or Queen of the day, or themselves.
• It was lawful to carry out government sanctioned medical experiments on other human being during trials for syphilis and many other diseases.
• It was lawful to carry out assassinations of individuals that ran afoul of our flawed laws.
• It was lawful to use chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations

It was lawful to perpetrate many horrific acts on our fellow citizens and many of us conjured up justifiable reasons for the above actions.

Post the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and during a speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention President George W. Bush used the following passage from the bible, Ecclesiastes 3
“To everything we know there is a season -- a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding. And now we have reached a time for hope. This young century will be liberty's century.”

Before that statement President Bush said, talking about John Kerry, the Democratic Party nominee for President “Again, my opponent takes a different approach. In the midst of war, he has called American allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed."

The audience booed, (directed at Senator Kerry)

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The continuation of the text of Ecclesiastes 3 goes like this:

A Time for Everything
1. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2. A time to be born and a time to die, A time to plant and a time to uproot,
3. A time to kill and a time to heal, A time to tear down and a time to build,
4. A time to weep and a time to laugh, A time to mourn and a time to dance,
5. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6. A time to search and a time to give up, A time to keep and a time to throw away,
7. A time to tear and a time to mend, A time to be silent and a time to speak,
8. A time to love and a time to hate, A time for war and a time for peace.

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Can someone tell?
• The family of Trayvon Martin,
• The people of America who have been served years of injustice,
• The Jury and elected officials of Florida and the United States who sit around year in year condoning laws that perpetrate decades and centuries of injustices on what seems like powerless citizens,

WHAT TIME IS IT?