By FRANK CERABINO
By FRANK CERABINO
Cox Newspapers
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — George Zimmerman needs a speechwriter. We had a pretty good idea that this overzealous neighborhood watchman from Sanford, Fla., had a deadly deficiency of judgment. But the 43 words he said in court last week at his bail hearing showed that even without a gun in his hands, Zimmerman’s still a wild shooter.
“I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son,” he began, speaking to Trayvon Martin’s parents, who were in the courtroom.
Apologizing to the dead teenager’s parents would have been a fitting overture to make if Zimmerman had made it two weeks ago, when he first began trolling the Web for donations to his defense.
Instead, his website began with: “On Sunday, February 26th, I was involved in a life altering event which led myself to become the subject of intense media coverage.”
As you can see, there’s no mention of the other person in this “event,” the one who had his life altered in the worst way.
And there’s no whiff of remorse or sympathy for the teenager’s family. Instead, Zimmerman’s first public communication was to wrap himself in the trappings of patriotic bunting while asking for money.
Not only is there American flag wallpaper on the site, but also inspirational quotes from American patriot Thomas Paine and British statesman Edmund Burke.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” Burke is quoted as saying in Zimmerman’s call for donations.
It’s an odd quote to use, considering that Trayvon Martin would be alive today if Zimmerman had done nothing that night. The “evil” — that this black teenager was “up to no good” while hiding something in his clothes and casing houses — turned out to be a series of tragic, false assumptions in Zimmerman’s mind.
So what does Edmund Burke have to do with anything? Or the American flag, unless the site is supposed to be a siren call to America’s gun lovers to view Zimmerman’s prosecution as an attack on their constitutional right to bear arms. As for historical quotations, the one most appropriate for Zimmerman’s call for cash might be that line from English writer Samuel Johnson: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Zimmerman’s belated apology to Martin’s parents continued:
“I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am.”
A little bit? Not according to what Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher that night.
Minutes before the shooting, the 911 dispatcher asked Zimmerman, 28, to estimate Martin’s age.
“Late teens,” Zimmerman told the dispatcher.
Martin was 17. So Zimmerman’s guess wasn’t far off.
So why say in court that you thought Martin was older than he turned out to be? Is that supposed to be some kind of an excuse for killing him?
It’s as if Zimmerman was saying, “Surely, I wouldn’t have shot your son if I knew he was 17. I thought he was 18, or 19.”
And since when is it OK to shoot unarmed teens as long as they’re older than 17? Then Zimmerman wrapped up his courtroom remarks with this gem:
“And I did not know if he was armed or not.”
So he just assumed he was, and then killed him? How could this possibly be a mitigating circumstance for homicide?
You get in a fight with somebody, a fight you brought on by your own actions, and then you justify the use of your own weapon by thinking that it’s the prudent thing to do because you can’t be sure if the person you’ve chosen to confront also has a gun.
I’m guessing that Zimmerman’s lawyer thought that his client’s public apology to Martin’s parents would create some sympathy for his client.
But those 43 words give credence to the idea that without a professional speechwriter, Zimmerman’s voice would be best outfitted with a silencer.