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Obama’s Sympathy for Trayvon

Touré is Correct: No one knows what Trayvon Martin might have become

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Touré’s recent article, “The Bravery of Obama’s Trayvon Speech,” is a much needed reminder at a time when America has become so blinded by racial, political and religious prejudices that, like W.B. Yeats’s famous poem warned, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” Although I did not vote for President Obama in 2008 or 2012, his sympathy for Trayvon Martin is deeply touching and reflective of the kind of moral leadership-by-example that America needs most right now. When Americans choose hatred and fear over compassion and patience for strangers, our nation is in danger of collapse. Touré is correct: no one knows what Trayvon Martin could have become. Every life is precious and we as a nation must learn to set aside our prejudices, paranoias and politics. When we can live in an America where two total strangers in the rain think to pull out umbrellas for each other rather than fight, we will once again be a great nation.

Daniel P. de Gracia, Waipahu, Hawaii