By Any Means Necessary! By Eric Smith

Violence is never the answer except in those extraordinary circumstances where the alternative is suicide. The parents of people of color are now confronted with the unimaginable reality that the lives of their children count for nothing and that they can be taken at whim and without any real fear of legal repercussions by anyone who need but utter three words: "I was afraid." No parent or guardian worthy of either title will willingly send their blood into the world knowing that their doing so will amount to sending their child to their deaths without eventually doing all that they can do to ensure that that child is more than equipped to defend him/herself.

The message to the African American community from these two miscarriages of justice in Florida is loud and clear; it is time to stop telling our children to turn the other cheek and it is time to urge them to repel any threat to their lives by any means necessary. This is no longer about taking the moral high ground; it is about self preservation; it is about preventing our collective extinction.

We are hemorrhaging our future with all of this disproportionate death and dying being done on the part of our youth of color. If we want our young people to cherish life then we must not hesitate to drive home to them that the first life they must cherish is their own; even if it means their being forced to take another life to preserve it.

Since the essence of the "Stand Your Ground" laws is the premise that one has a basic right to take another life if they are made fearful of losing their own, then we must instill in our youth of color that that rule applies equally to them; that just because their skin is dark doesn't make their life any less valuable or make their right to right to defend it by any means necessary any less valid.