"Am I the only one who thought Jeantel was fine on the stand?"
Honestly, I can't go down that line with you. What irks me most are the uber left-wing tv personalities who have set her up to be fodder for their counterparts at the other end of the spectrum like Rush Limbaugh. I personally believe that Rachel is now being exploited by both sides for political gain and the release of some internalized guilt. A juror has come forward post-trial and opined that Rachel felt unqualified in that setting to give her account of the telephone exchange with the Martin youth.
Worse still, the extreme right-wing fringe as well as a few selectively-outraged bleeding-heart liberals have painted her as all that is wrong with public education in the nation. I have encountered my share of Rachel's both within and without my family and community so I don't hesitate in writing that hers is a cautionary tale. Perhaps her family and inner circle are different from mine in that we (the members of my family) don't send our lambs to the slaughter for public amusement. And of course my views are shaped by my experience as a nearly 50-yr old trilingual black man born and raised in the USA.
#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.
Updated On: 7/17/13 at 08:14 PM