It is rare that I don’t know what to say. It is often I say the wrong thing, but it is rare that I have nothing to say at all. But there has been a lot of silence in my house, on my blog, in my social media streams. For everything I have been saying, I haven’t been saying much. At least not about George Zimmerman and the not-guilty verdict handed down late Saturday night. I haven’t been able to find the words. I am not sure they are mine to have.
What I have been doing is a lot of reading, a lot of listening, and more re-tweeting than usual. I am listening, especially to those whose stories are different from mine. I am listening so that I will better understand. To me, it could have been just a verdict in some media-frenzy court case. It could have, but it is so much more to people who I love. They are speaking up and out, about the things they have faced in this country, the ways they are regularly treated. They are speaking of the fear that is laced through their hearts, that squeezes every time their sons walk out the door. I am so grateful to these friends, internet and otherwise, who trust me with their stories.
Maybe you think everyone is over-reacting. Maybe you want to point out the differences in legality of not-guilty and innocent. Maybe you just want everyone to move on already. Maybe it is time to weep with those who weep, to mourn with those who mourn.
I don’t know what the answers are. I don’t know that I am called to answers. I do know that I am called to mourn. To sit and listen, to better understand the wailing. To move my posture to a place where I identify with those who mourn. These stories, they are changing me. I am listening. I am weeping with you.
Abby Norman 
I mourn with 2 families whose lives are forever changed.
no words here either. only to join with those who sorrow in deep places i can’t even fathom. and a prayer for comfort, grace, peace, and restoration.
You again nailed it. I have noticed a marked decrease in the number of beautiful and anecdotal pictures from FB friends. Since I have the same number of friends, being dropped is not a contributing factor to the quietness. In fact, yesterday, I keyboarded an appeal to start the fun again…… Send pictures of beautiful vistas, cute animals, flower and the like.
Actually I believe people are doing what you are doing. They are contemplating and maybe even remembering when things were not as they are. Needless to say, but a verdict such as that sets ppl back. The Jury is one thing, but the deeper system is the real danger. People passed the laws that worked into the trial and all that preceded the trial. People may thinking why are we here and how did we get here.
I truly hope they are thinking, “how do we reverse what we are seeing so very regularly.”
Love it! Can’t say how much I respect people who know how and when to listen.
Mourning is as absolute and bleak as is death and loss suffered…innocent or guilty, mourning is absolute. A child with all his future is grievous beyond anything, and I will NEVER get over our human cruelty of KILLING each other…there are natural causes which are grievous, and we multiply the sorrow by hundredfolds. Those are my thoughts circling around loss of lives around me at this time.
Hope you can open the attached sermon in response to the trail.