Tribute to Trayvon Martin

There have been numerous killings of black suspects over the years, I have had black friends tell me how they are stopped routinely by traffic cops by no apparent reason other than their skin color. But Trayvon Martin's killing hit a nerve. A promising young student who had a whole life ahead of him was killed by a vigilante cop Zimmerman, possibly motivated by racial profiling. For the first time, the president spoke out - a brilliant speech only Obama could deliver. In his speech, he laid out the dilemma of a nation who still have ways to go before becoming a more perfect union.

After passing the dark era of slavery and painful era of segregation, we have reached the era of racial profiling now. This too will pass but not without a conscious effort from people of all races. Regardless of the statistics about blacks being guilty of more crimes than any other race, it is for all of us to say, racial profiling is unjust. The dream Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned - a person should be judged by the content of their character not by the color of the skin - holds true now as well as it did back in 60s.

Every now and then one singular event changes the course of a nation. When Rosa Parks refused to get off the seat reserved for whites in Montgomery, she set off dramatic protests that took the nation by storm. When Gandhi was thrown out of a train because of his skin color from a train in south Africa in the middle of a rainy night, the world changed forever. I hope this too changes the great country of ours, no more innocents should die because of the presumed guilt and we shall, in time, recognize that as the perfect tribute to the memory of Trayvon Martin.