100 Sigs per Second—NAACP Petition for Fed Civil Rights Action Draws Massive Volume

Heartening news.

The NAACP petition calling on the U.S. Dept of Justice to file civil rights charges against George Zimmerman drew traffic so high Saturday night and Sunday that the petition site was drawing 100 signatures per second before the server crashed under the load.

You can still sign the NAACP petition, and several partner organizations are helping in a united front for justice, calling as well for a broader discussion on racial injustice in America.

Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said on the Rachel Maddow show Monday night that the petition has now reached almost 1,000,000 signers nationwide, though this one-million mark is likely surpassed as you read

This massive outpouring happened despite servers crashing for some 13 hours under the volume on Sunday, Jealous said.

"The country has responded in a way that is just incredible," Jealous said on the Maddow show.

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Updated - Obama and Zimmerman, Both Are Hiding Today

Alabama - 1963

Update: Statement by the President:

The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy.  Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America.  I know this case has elicited strong passions.  And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher.  But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.  I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.  And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities.  We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis.  We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this.  As citizens, that’s a job for all of us.  That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin.
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Even a banal statement from the White House would be appreciated at this point: 2:26 P.M. Eastern Time, Sunday.

Whatever calculation the White House made, it came to the wrong conclusion.

Silence is moral complicity here.

Shite, borrow from President Kennedy in 1963:

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he can not send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

Wondering really how much progress has been made when a president is so hesitant, so afraid of offending racists when an American, because his skin is dark, cannot go to a convenience store in public, buy some Skittles candy and not come home because he has been scrutinized, judged and killed.

Myself, I have little patience this Sunday.

Stephen Stafford writes today, "Zimmerman will now feel what its like to live in fear of being followed by strangers for the rest of his life."

That's right. Welcome to being black in America.

Obama Needs to Launch Massive Federal Action in Wake of Zimmerman

Update: Andrew Cohen in The Atlantic: "What the verdict tells us is, to the astonishment of tens of millions of us, you can go looking for trouble in Florida, with a gun and a great deal of racial bias, and you can find that trouble, and you can act upon that trouble in a way that leaves a young man dead, and none of it guarantees that you will be convicted of a crime."

As black and brown Americans work to recover lost ground just to vote in America, President Obama should urge the federal Dept of Justice to pursue a violation of civil rights case against George Zimmerman, for beginners.

This is precisely what the NAACP is advocating in gathering 100,000 signatures in hours a national petition to urge Atty General Holder to move in a civil rights action against Zimmerman.

Broadly, President Obama needs to make a national address specifically on the Zimmerman case, and speak with Americans on the imperative for government to fight for equality and justice under the law.

And President Obama needs to act fast ... with all deliberate speed.

America is losing ground fast in racial justice, and it's coming on the watch of the first black president.

Losing ground because the Republican Party has effectively declared itself a white party, and they are not backing away.

Racism is here, it's in the heart and actions of George Zimmerman stalking and killing Trayvon Martin.

It's here in Wisconsin with too many tragic examples echoing the racist killing of Bo Morrison by Adam Kind in Washington County last year.

It's in the Republican Party, as the national and local Republican parties are doubling down on its whites-only electoral strategy as Republicans continue to demonize and disenfranchise people of color.

Killing of black folks has become an all-too-common occurrence, as modern-day lynchings (often accomplished by local police, see Fruitvale Station for one gruesome example) are carried out with only whispers of community disapproval.

Fight racism peacefully where you see it, you won't have to look very long.

No cause on the Zimmerman verdict to launch recriminations against the jurors; jurors need to be free from recriminations for the 'justice' system to function at even a minimal level.

But by no means should we respect the verdict in Sanford, Florida, the end result of a racist society, worse in Florida.

The verdict needs to be condemned in the most broad action in the most harsh tones.

We do need to ask ourselves what the media mean when they refer, idiotically, to "unrest" after the Zimmerman verdict reaches all of America.

Unrest, as opposed to lassitude?

Proud to Be an American Tonight

Never have I been so proud to see the people demand that the rule of law be followed and that it be just.

People power forced the Florida judicial system to work, people power and nothing less.

The warrant for justice in the murder of Trayvon Martin was drawn and sustained by millions of the American people led by a very small group who said: Oh, hell no, not this time.

Said Robert F. Kennedy, a man who grew as a man out of tragedy, then fighting for justice [what fools today call political correctness]:

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.

New Black Panthers vow to hunt for Trayvon Martin's killer

Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign kickoff speech
at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi

We need a presidential address to the nation on race and the license to kill now.

The rightwing and Republicans will groan, but on matters of race, sexism, sexuality (gays are possessed by demons, Pat Robertson) and equality generally they simply cannot be taken seriously anymore.

Commentary around the world instructs on the urgency of the moment.

RT (Russia Today) - A new development in the Trayvon Martin case could cause further pandemonium. This after The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is calling for a militia of 5,000 black volunteers to help capture Trayvon’s murderer, George Zimmerman.

CNN - From coast to coast, protesters demand justice in Trayvon Martin case

Politiscoop - In Wisconsin, in the wake of the Bo Morrison-Castle Doctrine murder, victim Morrison's relatives are calling for peace, though the DA and police are covering up.

Midiaite -  Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sinbad, say good people need to speak out.

Eugene Robinson - "The 'Stand Your Ground' laws in Florida and other states should all be repealed. At best, they are redundant. At worst, as in the Trayvon Martin killing, they are nothing but a license to kill."

President Barack Obama - "It is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. … But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

Newt Gingrich - President’s remarks are "disgraceful" ... Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be ok because it didn’t? because it didn't look liked him?"

Forbes Josh Barro - "If conservatives keep letting Newt get away with these sorts of comments, why should they be taken seriously on issues relating to race?"

Adam Kind and George Zimmerman are killers.

Young black men being killed is fairly common.

It's past time for us to say, 'not in our name,' and repeal all Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine laws, modeled by the American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC) "the corporate-funded group that aligns special-interest organizations and corporate donors with pliable legislators," as John Nichols points out, using the research on ALEC conducted bythe Center for Media and Democracy.  See the July 2011 Special Report on ALEC's Funding and Spending by the Center for Media and Democracy for continuing updates.

The stakes are high.

Let's hope President Obama leads our country away from a path onto which we are quickly veering, towards a place where we will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last!

If we do not; Bo Morrison and Trayvon Martin are just the beginning.

The Lynching of Trayvon Martin

When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe

Update: Over 1,327,162 more signatures for justice.

Over nine hundred thousand people have signed a petition calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman who killed Trayvon Martin for being black.

But as imbecilic as Zimmerman is, let's call this murder what it is: A lynching.

Zimmerman felt entitled to hunt down, assault and then shoot to death Trayvon Martin while speaking to a 911 operator for one reason: Zimmerman is empowered to do so by the Florida statute and the political culture in which we live, one where a major political party constantly strokes racist sentiments among the population to get elected.

Culture does matter. So does political rhetoric.

We understand why President Obama cannot comment now, as press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday, "I note that the Justice Department has said that it’s looking into the matter, and I would refer you to the Justice Department. Obviously, our thoughts and prayers, as I said yesterday, are with Trayvon Martin’s family. But beyond that, not least because there is an investigation going on, I don't have anything else I can add."

But condemnation from Presidents Clinton and Carter, and the Bush family is called for. And that especially includes former Flordia Gov. Jeb Bush. Even Florida legislators who sponsored the Stand Your Ground law are speaking out. So where are the Republican candidates running for president? Not word one.

The family and folks such as Color for Change and the Congressional Black Caucus are driving this investigation for now.

If we cannot communicate a moral imperative for political leaders to speak up, consider the public safety imperative. A deadly riot broke out in 1991 after racist Los Angeles cops who beat Rodney King were acquitted.

Young Trayvon Martin was hunted down and lynched with the implicit approval of the Sanford, Florida police department, and a racist political culture.

So the next time the Republican Party plays their race card, like it is right now, consider the words of Ralph McGill in the Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 13, 1958, after the dynamiting of a Jewish Temple in Atlanta.

Let us face the facts. This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown. It is the harvest of those so-called Christian ministers who have chosen to preach hate instead of compassion. Let them now find pious words and raise their hands in deploring the bombing of a synagogue. You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.