America has heard the calls for justice from a Florida family.  A boy’s blood had been spilled on a rain-soaked patch of grass behind a row of mustard-colored condominiums by a man who had pursued him against the advice of 911 dispatchers. That man carried a 9-millimeter handgun. The boy carried a bag of candy.  Yet it seems, largely on the weight of his own word, the man who killed the boy was allowed to walk out of the police station that night without even a charge.  The boy’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office and kept in a morgue. The man who killed him was able to return home.  The dead boy was Trayvon Martin. The man who killed him was George Zimmerman. The bullet that passed between them silenced a child but ignited a nation.  Americans saw the anguish of the boy’s father and the tears of his mother. America saw a child who was its own. America saw its concept of basic fairness sinking in to the marsh of miscarried justice.  So America rose up. Thousands marched in the streets. Millions signed petitions online. Hearts poured out for justice to rain down.  With the force of public pressure at its back, the system kicked into gear. A state attorney in the Florida county where the shooting death occurred recused himself, and the local police chief stepped down — at least “temporarily.” The governor appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, to lead the state’s investigation in the case, and the United States Department of Justice’s civil rights division and the F.B.I. opened their own investigations.  On Wednesday, Corey charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder and he was taken into custody. On Thursday, Zimmerman appeared in a Florida courtroom, and Corey released a simple but chilling affidavit for probable cause that painted a disturbing portrait of Zimmerman as a man who “profiled,” “followed” and “confronted” the boy.  This is a moment when America should be proud. The wheels of justice are finally turning. The State of Florida has taken up the cause of the dead boy. His life is no more, but his legacy will live forever.  The state will vigorously prosecute, and Zimmerman will be vigorously defended as is his constitutional right.  The facts should come out in court and under oath and not just over airwaves and in newspapers. Truth will be sought and, hopefully, found. And whatever the verdict, it will be based on the presentation of evidence and the interpretation of the law, as it should be.  That is not to say that the quest for justice in this case has been without incident.  Some have sought to demagogue the boy’s death and shroud his lifeless body in partisan politics. Some have pressed their passion for justice beyond the bounds of what is proper. Some have sought to besmirch the boy’s life to minimize the resonance of his death.  But, in the end, all of this was just a diversion from the central issue, a noble good, a moral right: the quest for truth and justice for a child by the people who loved him and a nation who refused to forget him.  None but those who themselves have lost a child can ever know his parents’ pain, but we can all sympathize with their sorrow.  America doesn’t always get it right, but she is in her greatest glory when she turns her face toward righteousness. She is not perfect, but men and women of good will and good conscience toil endlessly to make her better.  And, in this case, America seems to be finally getting it right because equal justice under the law is one of her greatest ideals.  By the way, it is important to remember here that no one should take joy in any dark days that may come Zimmerman’s way, even as we take great joy in seeking justice for the child he killed. Crusading for justice is an act of love and honor, not of vengeance or spite or hatred. Justice is a high calling, not a low pursuit.  And, because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense, there is a possibility that the case may never go to trial or, even if it does, there will be no conviction. But whatever the outcome, satisfaction must be taken in the fact that the system recognized the value of Trayvon’s life and the tragic circumstances of his death.  As his mother said after the charge was announced: “We simply wanted an arrest. We wanted nothing more, nothing less. We just wanted an arrest. And we got it. And I just want to say, ‘Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank You, Jesus.’ ”
When a Florida family simply asked that the case involving the shooting death of an unarmed teenager be tried in a court of law, America responded.