Treyvon was a Thug

There's going to be a little gathering of politicians and decent people down on the national Mall today to celebrate a speech by a pretty inspiring Republican. As a product of southern education, I am guessing I have heard this speech thousands of times. I took his words about judge by the content of character, rather than the color of skin to heart and made it a part of how I interact with people. It really is just a repeat of something someone said before him, namely:

Luke 6:31 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Contrary to what you might think about me, given I refer to myself as a grouchy old white guy, I try very hard not to prejudge people and expect 99.99% of the people I interact with with to not be nasty, self centered, or evil people.

That being said, once a person by his actions or words proves him / herself evil, then you have a long way to go with me to dig yourself out of it. Even then, I try to understand where the evil comes from. For example, I understand the motives of the drug addict in need of their next fix. They do terrible things to satisfy their needs. I understand the desperate drunk or homeless. They are trying to make their way in a hostile world and will sometimes compromise their morals while searching for security. These things I understand.

Thus I admit that I don't know Treyvon's motivation for attacking Zimmerman that night. I don't know if he was off his meds, angry at authority, in need of a fix, or just wanted to administer a whoop ass. I do know that Zimmerman waited a long time in the confrontation to pull his gun. Almost too long as it turned out. Tryevon's character was lacking that night, and the confrontation had nothing to do with the color of his skin. At his end he was a thug, and that is truly sad, as like all men he was born with the potential for greatness.