For many, hearing the Zimmerman verdict was a sobering slap in the face. When Zimmerman — a clearly unstable and maybe even sociopathic man who killed a kid — is allowed to walk our streets as a free man, you know something is very, very wrong.
Zimmerman’s case isn’t the first in Florida to garner national attention only to make us look like fools. The Casey Anthony trial in 2011, with its shocking “not guilty” verdict, caused many to really wonder whether the justice system in the United States is broken.
Perhaps the justice system as a whole is not broken, though. Maybe it’s just a Florida thing.
Has Florida become the joke of the nation? Florida’s follies don’t end in the courtroom.
Earlier this year, the Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott approved an insane ban on bongs. Just imagine the view of reality they must have in order to spend as much effort as they did in passing such utterly useless legislation.
If that isn’t enough to convince you how out of touch the folks in Tallahassee are with reality, then it might surprise you to hear that computers in the state have been banned. Earlier this month, in an attempt to ban slot games and Internet cafes, Scott and the Florida legislature accidentally banned all computers.
This state has problems. Society is riddled with them, yet the state thinks it’s a better allocation of time and tax dollars to worry about pot and slot games. Meanwhile, true dangers to society like Zimmerman are given a free pass.
While our afflictions aren’t all equal in source or solution, we can at least agree there are many ways in which the state is doing an awful job and sometimes even making things worse.
Fortunately, the people have a lot of power — at least in principle. Every resident has a role to play in both the creation of problems and finding solutions to those problems.
How can we fix Florida? The first step is to inform ourselves about what’s going on. The next step is to learn about the appropriate solutions to the societal problems we perceive. The last step is to actually put the solutions into action.
The Internet helps us by making these steps easier to follow than ever. Commit to informing yourself every day. It is frustrating and exhausting to hear about the problems we face, but they’re bound only to worsen if we plug our ears.
Then, inform yourself about the ideas people have about fixing the problems. While there are disagreements among intelligent people, we can agree that not thinking and just continuing down the road we’re already on is not what we want. An educated population debating the issues is far more desirable than a sleeping population.
The last step is probably the trickiest. Sometimes good solutions arise from novel ideas, like taking the initiative to start a group. Sometimes protesting and having your voice heard is the solution.
If nothing else, make sure to always cast a protest vote: Vote only for people who agree with what you think the role of the state should be.
