The ramifications of the George Zimmerman verdict hit me like a lightning bolt one Sunday during Mass. A young African-American mom with her three male, school-aged children were receiving Holy Communion. I felt a sense of worry for her and wondered if she felt the same as a mother of young African-American boys being brought up in a country that still doesn't always understand the meaning of racial profiling.
In my opinion, that was evident in the Zimmerman trial outcome. This trial has reopened old wounds and rightly so. I feel a sense of shame that, as an Italian-American mother, I have anxieties and fears but they may not be as intense as those of the mother I saw that Sunday and other moms in her shoes. This is wrong and unbelievable in the year 2013.
The frantic actions of George Zimmerman could have been avoided if he did not take the law into his own hands and if he did not carry a gun. He shouldn't have been pretending to be the sheriff of Dodge City.
To all moms out there, let us pray for peace, understanding and fairness for all our children as they are met with prejudice and unfair judgement.
Liza Z. Tougher
Delmar