Trojan Judgment

It’s been interesting to see the media trying to whip up anger and other sundry emotions about the Zimmerman verdict.  Race is such a delicate subject and it permeated this case from the get go.  I think the activists chose the wrong case to champion though.  A definitive tragedy that a promising young man lost his life because a wannabe cop got himself into a situation where deadly force was inappropriately used.

I’ve always been against arming idiots with guns and this is the result when that happens.  The angry crowds seem to forget that the evidence demonstrated Martin was attacking Zimmerman at the time of the shooting.  Martin fell victim to his hubris when he bought into the thug type response to Zimmerman’s obvious profiling of him.  Too many young African-Americans buy into this type lifestyle promoted by the lionizing of rap music stars (of course I would lay most of society’s ills at rap music’s feet, but I digress).  

If Martin had just ignored the idiot he would be alive today.  The same activists demonizing the legal system now were much more supportive when it allowed OJ Simpson to walk away from two bloody murders he obviously committed.  They forced the authorities to over charge the crime and now the idiot walks free.

On a somewhat more mundane level I finished my daughter’s latest recommended book over the past weekend, Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.   I was a little nervous about the book because I grew up idolizing the myths surrounding the Trojan War and didn’t want another modern author taking that great story and trying to deconstruct it.  I could not have been more wrong – this is an awesome read.  Miller obviously knows her way around the legends and takes a fresh approach to the heroes of the Iliad. 

She doesn’t try to explain away the Greek gods but makes them part of the tapestry and active participants.  Achilles is such a compelling character that we’re still talking about him four thousand years after Homer first chronicled his adventures.  The real hero of Miller’s work though is Patroclus, Achilles very boon companion and ultimate conscience. 

It’s hard to believe that new life could be injected into this time honored story but Miller manages to.  It’s really a tribute to old Homer himself who spun a yarn that keeps on giving all these centuries later, talk about staying power.