Charen spins tragedy

Where most well-meaning people see a young man’s tragic death, Mona Charen (July 16) found another lefty conspiracy (“Martin’s death exploited”). She feigns neutrality, writing “both Martin and Zimmerman showed poor judgment,” even asks if Zimmerman was possibly “too rash?”

But bottom line for her and cartoonist Lisa Benson is that the man with the gun, who went after the kid in a hoodie (after a dispatcher said to not pursue), is seen as victim, beaten up by the media.

For questioning the process and verdict, Charen chastises an anonymous “much forwarded email” and various black commentators as being “race baiters, provocateurs, rumormongers.” At this point, she reminds us that “most blacks are killed by other blacks,” which has nothing to do with this case – except to race-bait.

How difficult is it to understand that being dead is a worse penalty than being alive and subject to scrutiny for having killed an unarmed teenager? In the end, the man with the gun is credited with acting in self-defense, but the kid who was defending himself against the guy with a gun is portrayed as attacker.

Can we not be sympathetic to the prospect that some people find that unfair, even threatening?

Chris Bruce

Pullman