Why should I go to a stupid rally? Terrible shit happens every day. In fact things that are infinitely more terrible than this have happened numerous times just in the recent past and I have seen exactly zero mentions of rallies for them on here. This whole situation ranks right up there with Paula Dean or some other race baiting bullshit blown out of proportion by the useless news media. You see this meaningless crap running in 24 hour loops acting as a placebo for all the things that directly affect your life or your future that never make it onto your TV screen. I'm much more concerned about the larger issues that discriminate against everyone and there still isn't anything I can do about those.

I expect these sort of comments from oregonians. I'm not surprised. Amongst the natural beauty of PDX lies a undercurrent of subtle racism. Yet, again I am not surprised. Oregon has its own issues thats hidden behind the sprawling pines. . .Alcoholism, Homelessness, Drug Addiction, Highest Strip clubs and Bars per capita. One of the highest dropout rates and emancipated teens per capita. All within this beautiful 93% white state.

This case wasn't all about race. It was also about an inept prosecution and other stupid technical details of a courtroom trial by jury. Do I think Zimmerman should be getting off with zero penalty for shooting an unarmed teen, regardless of race or skin color? No. Does my opinion matter? No. I also am not losing sleep at night over it. What I think is stupid is trying to champion such a minor incident that happened across the country when plenty of discriminatory acts transpire locally all the time. Why should I waste my time going to a rally for an incident that absolutely has no bearing whatsoever on my daily life when there is plenty of random violence, police brutality and corruption, homelessness, drug addiction and crime right here that might impact my safety? If people paid more attention to what's right in front of their faces instead of getting manipulated by corporate media maybe some of these issues would actually get addressed. I always wonder why an issue like this is turned into a 24 hour media circus when so many other things are swept under the rug, and my concern has nothing to do with skin colors.

You hear that folks a user with the name "JRRTrollkien" has something eloquent and intelligent to say! How cute.

Quite frankly I'm not quite sure if I like the way you're winking at me. I can't tell if it's a veiled threat, unbridled lasciviousness, or one of those kitty tricks to try and con me out of more crunchy treats.

Trollkien, what's so bad about engaging in a national debate? You say the media is race-baiting and blowing things out of proportion, I say that this event was a microcosm of all of the things that are completely fucked up about this country - our approach to guns and gun control, race, profiling, property ownership, and on and on and on. Saying that we are all being manipulated by the media is incredibly reductive.

And yeah, going to an event like this not going to fix anything right away, and I agree that peoples energies would be better spent fixing the problems at their homes, but it's tragedies like this that get the attention of the "subtly" (or, as I prefer to think of many of them as, "cluelessly") racist, and makes them get their asses off the couch and out into the real world where people are feeling real pain, maybe even spurring them on to actually do something good for someone other than themselves, e.g. "the community". I wasn't at the event, but I am sure it wasn't all hippies and conscious white boy rappers leading the parade - people want / need to express themselves about this shit.

Portland Community Media is hosting a LIVE open forum to discuss the causes leading up to and the effects of the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman. What does this all mean? Come take part in an open dialogue. This forum will air live on Ch. 23 as well as be live streamed via upstream. Portland Community Media is located at 2766 NE MLK Blvd.