Reverse Lynch Mob

Let me tell you a story to chill the bones
About a thing that I saw
One night wondering in the everglades
I had one drink but no more
--Dance of Death, Iron Maiden

They’ve promised that dreams can come true,
but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too
--Oscar Wilde

That becomes the revolution,
to be idealistic enough that you think
you can change the world, and what you find
is you can't change anything but yourself
--Marilyn Manson
____________________

An open letter to Charles Blow, New York Times columnist:

Dear Mr. Blow,

Not you, too.

I've always been your most ardent fan, even writing you personally twice in support of your columns. But I believe you have flubbed it up this time with your presentation of the Trayvon Martin case. Mama and grandma gave you the high points, but what else would we expect?

First, your use of the word "slain" implies premeditation, and is word usually reserved for warriors; neither is the case here.

The bunnies and the cookies and the brownies with lots of nuts -- this is glurge, Mr. Blow. We all know that families usually rally 'round their even wayward members, saying what a good guy he was, and maybe to them, he was. But that is not the whole of anyone.

You write, "This hardly fits the profile of a menacing teen who would attack a grown man unprovoked . . .", but Mr. Blow, you are not speaking from the facts of the case. The BTK ("Bondage-Torture-Kill") serial killer was liked roundly; our own Ted Bundy was intelligent and quite the charmer . . . when he wasn't killing people. You lose credibility when you enter a case for one side -- a case which has not even begun.

I am not sure the press's need to pillory the other player in this totentanz, but I get the media's message: If a black person is shot not by another black person in 2012, the shooter is de facto guilty. In the old days, this was called a lynch mob mentality.

I guess today we should call it "the reverse lynch mob".