A Letter to Geraldo

Dear Geraldo Rivera,

I saw the Twitter pic posted by Lebron James of his entire Miami Heat Team wearing Hoodies in honor of Trayvon Martin. It got me to thinking.

Long before the brutal murder the following people were often seen (and could be easily googled) wearing a hoodie: Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt, Jay Z, Spike Lee, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Sasha Obama, Bill Belichek, and well, you get the idea.

What people wear, especially young people, is one of the primary ways they define their personality. My son wears almost nothing but hoodies, and that goes for most all of his friends. And yes, despite the best efforts if his mom and I, his pants ofen sag down below his waist band. I would have to say I don’t particularly like it, but when I remember what I wore back when I was his age and actually wore for a stunning number of years beyond my teens, I recall vaguely how kids find and define their identity through what they wear.   

I seem to recall a young Geraldo Rivera with wild hair-- much in fashion in those days-- reporting from Willowbrook, a photo also easily googled. In those days, young men with long hair were often considered an enemy of the state, nearly un-American, especially those that dared to challenge the status quo.

Could it be that you have forgotten?

I don't know what exactly you were trying to say. Although let's face it, some of your reporting is pretty ridiculous (Al Capone’s Safe), and even though you speak from a forum on Fox News, I am inclined to give you some benefit of the doubt based on your long journalistic career.

But the message you conveyed was that Trayvon and all boys his age, especially black kids, were just asking for it when they went on in public wearing hoodies as Trayvon wore on that rainy day. Perhaps he would be alive still if it did not rain that day. It seems in doing this you perpetuate the stereotype that likely got Trayvon killed. The country seems repulsed by the loss of this young life. While we know that so many kids his age are in trouble already, that did not seem to be Trayvon’s life. His story seems to have been one of hope. Whether a life of hope or one of anxious want we should see the circumstances of death as precisely what they are: Tragic and Avoidable. As such we should search our souls now for ways to prevent this in the future.

Speaking personally, I wish the Americans showed just as much outrage for the other 3,000 kids younger than 18 killed by gun violence every year, or the 20,000 wounded by guns. America has a horrible and tragic attachment to their guns. I wish you had spoken to that instead of reinforcing a stereotype that is the root of too much violence.