Grace Under Pressure in Ft Lauderdale

You want to be brave but gunfire gets you running. Hemingway's definition of courage rings in your ears as you run like hell. Fight or flight.  Grace under pressure. It should be a mantra that one can rely on but if you read  The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber or Red Badge of Courage then you know it does not always come the first time. In both of these stories the hero is found wanting in the first engagement with a lion or war. The fear is something you can taste and grace deserts you in that first flash.  

You tell yourself that the next time you will look and see what is going on. That you wont succumb to the numbing rush of adrenaline that gets you running like a star halfback. It is a very powerful drug. That you will somehow fight back and get control of yourself. In the Hemingway's short story and Red Badge of Courage both protagonists assert themselves in the second brush with death. One dies in the process and one makes it through but they have conquered their fear and grace is present under pressure. 

The problem is you don't know when that second challenge will come. It may never come and you want to think that you will be ready. But it is the very randomness of a shooting that is terrifying. You don't know. Nobody does. All you can do his hope that is doesn't and if it does you will be able to grab a little grace under pressure during  the primal fight to stay alive. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The Horror of Ft Lauderdale Shooting

You first see her around the pool. You are all refugees from the shooting waiting to get out of Florida. She is being held up by the hotel people. It is the kind of grief you have never seen and that is when you know she is one of the victims of the shooting. She goes away and that's when you decide to get a drink. It has been a long day and there is nothing to do but wait for your flight in two days back to Chicago. So you go into the hotel bar and a man walks in with red eyes and the bartender says he can have anything he wants and that the hotel will pick up the tab for his room and order dinner. He just mouths thank you.

You take your drink and someone asks him just then. Were you there. Yes. My father in law was shot through the eye and it went through his brain and out the back. There is silence. Was his wife there? My mother in law has passed. You don't know what to say. The small hotel bar is quiet. Even the bartender has red eyes. You take your drink but the heaviness is so bad you go back to your table and pull out that Cuban cigar you picked up in Honduras. Anything to get rid of this.

And then you see them again. The woman who lost her mother and maybe her father is in the middle surrounded by family. They are a silent procession around the pool with their suitcases. They are leaving for a hotel closer to the hospital. So that is what a shooting really looks like. You finish your drink and light your cigar because nothing can dull the horror.

Madam President

Brother says Trayvon stalked George!

I get it, Trayvon mugged George! George Zimmermans brother has laid it out for us on that hot Florida night. He has let us know that George was not following Trayvon and in fact the opposite happened: he was followed! The brother is very calm and we now see George's defence which is that he was the victim. He was just a good Samaritan doing his duty as a citizen by calling in a suspicious character and walking back to his truck when he was attacked by a the Skittle toting thug and brutally assaulted and then right before he lost consciousness, right before imminent death, he went to his last resort, literally gasping his last breath, he didn't want to you understand, but he pulled his gun to keep Trayvon from taking it from him and shooting him!

The brother says all this in perfect calm. Very logical. Very tragic. But no. George was not following Trayvon. No. No. He merely kept his eye on him then lost track of him and then was attacked from behind and became the victim of the crazed Skittle mugger. Hmmm. Even Pierce Morgan had a hard time with that one but this is what we can expect. The gun was incidental. The gun just happened to be there because it is very normal for Floridians to carry guns and call in suspicious characters and to follow the suspicious character and then disobey the 911 operator and follow the suspicious character.

Wait a minute Pierce the brother says. He never said he was suspicious and he never followed him. But the police asked him if he was following him and he said yes!  I think you have to listen to that tape a little closer Pierce. He never said he was actually following him. What about calling in a man with a hoodie? He would have called in anyone who was suspicious. So we see on that hot Florida night no one is never safe. Even with a nine millimeter and an SUV you still are in danger.

What if he had never gotten out of his truck, Pierce asks finally. What if he had just left this boy alone? Ah. But you see. You are assuming he did something to Trayvon. Trayvon pursued my brother! And my brother woudl have been dead if he had not used his gun. Ohhhhh....it all makes perfect sense now. You are right. Good thing George had a gun. He might have gotten pinged by a Skittle.

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The Zimmerman View

Well now we have the brother of poor George saying that it was all in self defence and that the medical records will prove that poor George was getting beat up by the Skittle bearing Trayvon and that as a last resort meeting force with force he had to shoot the unarmed hoody skittle bandit to save his own life. Hmmm. Ok so here is the brothers salient point...George could not really defend himself against the blitzkrieg of Trayvon because "he was out of breath." Now the logical question for the vigilante turned murderer is...drum roll please...why was George out of breath?

Say he was working out. Taking a jog. Dropped and decided to do a quick fifty push ups and then some jumping jacks. Maybe a quick Karate workout to be the ever ready citizen patroler. Maybe he was running from some point outside the gate community and was late for work. Maybe he had asthma. Maybe COPD. Maybe he just as a rule is out of breath. Or maybe...just maybe he was....CHASING TRAYVON. Could that be the reason poor George was out of breath?

The brother sees no incongruity in this version of events. He sees himself as giving Georges side of events but of course the question, the question is that if a man is pursing another man and he has a gun and he has ignored the police who told him not pursue the man and now he is out of breath...since that man is the aggressor and the other man on the defensive? And how would these tables turn on packing George? I mean couldn't he have stopped running after Trayvon and caught his breath?

Or was George so intent on catching the hooded Skittle bandit and using his nine millimeter that he didn't even stop to catch his breath? The brother doesn't elaborate on this...but he wants the hate speech to stop. Tragic he says. Tragic. Yeah...you're right. Poor George all out of breath having to bust a cap to defend himself...there really ought to be a law.

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The Fiction of Zimmerman's Story

When you write fiction you have to have believability. You have to have people believe that your character is capable of the actions you have described. Your editor is shaking her head because she just read your story that is about an African American walking in a gated community in Florida. And he is being pursued by this guy in an SUV who has a gun. Your character is scared and talking to his girlfriend on his cellphone telling her that this dude is following him and he is trying to get away. Just run the girlfriend says. Your character has a pack of skittles and an iced tea and is wearing a hoodie. But your guy with the gun  is closing in.

Now your man in the SUV who has a nine millimeter on his hip in a holster is talking to the police. They tell him don't pursue your guy but you want to keep the action going so you have him get out of his truck and mutter, "they always get away." Now you have established a motive for him to pursue your black teenager who is still trying to get away, heart pounding, holding his iced tea and Skittles. Now your guy in the SUV is running after him and he calls out and your character stops trying to get away.

Here is where your editor puts down your fiction. I just don't get it. What? You have this kid who is scared to death running from this guy. Yeah so? But then you have him turn and assault the guy in the SUV and punch him and jump on top of him and slam his head against the sidewalk. Yeah so? Your guy in the SUV has a gun! He has a nine millimeter on his hip! Your character has a pack of Skittles and an iced tea, he would never turn and fight a man with a gun. It just wouldnt happen. You stare at your editor. Maybe my character is a bad ass you point out. Your editor demures. Even the worst gang banger in the world wouldn't take on a man with a gun if he doesn't have one. 

So you rethink your story. Hmmm... How about I tell it from the view point the guy in the SUV? Your editor shakes her head. Oh, so now you want to tell it from the viewpoint of a man hunting a young un armed African American with a gun and an SUV?  She shakes her head. Who in the world would empathize with someone like that?

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Stand Your Ground Against the Hooded Skittle Thugs

Yeah. Stand your ground. You have a gun and a car and the kid in the hood has Skittles. So why is Zimmerman still walking around? Could it be Florida justice has a blind white eye?Hmm...maybe. But with Stand Your Ground if someone threatens you or you think they are threatening you or maybe someone tells you they might threaten you or they spit your way....or they walk through your neighborhood with a hoodie and a  pack of Skittles. THREATENING...Oh yeah.

So what is the Justice Department waiting for?Yeah we have this case. What are the facts? An armed man shot a kid in his neighborhood. Was the kid armed? Um. No. Did he have a car?Um. No. Did the man who was armed follow him?Um. Yes. Did he call to him? Yes. Did the kid do anything? He tried to get away. I see...so what happened then? He shot him. Hmph. Did he have anything that might be construed as a weapon? Skittles. What?He had Skittles sir.

So...they have to determine if Zimmerman felt threatened by the kid with Skittles. The high school kid who was trying to get away from the dude packing heat. Yeah. Convene that Grand Jury. Get that Justice Dept investigation going. Yeah...let's find out if a Skittle thrown at sixty miles an hour (average speed for a Skittle thrown) could hurt someone. Yeah. Skittle forensic tests. Le's get to the bottom of  a man threatened with a pack of candy.

Yeah Baby. Justice.

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