The morning of June 16, 2013 started off like any other traditional morning in Amy Gibbon’s house. It was a portrait of a young single mother trying to provide the best life possible for her 5-year-old son in the small town of Calumet, Oklahoma. The every-day stresses of being a parent on her own probably vanished at the smile on her son’s face.
On that same day, in a courtroom in Sanford, Florida, the second round of jury selection in the George Zimmerman case was getting under way. Attorneys were arguing over the details of what exactly a jury of Zimmerman’s peers might look like, meanwhile leaders in the black community like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were speaking of race and hate.
The details of what happened later that day has not been released to the public. What we do know was that Amy was found dead in her home, killed by the blunt force of an object to her head. Her 5 year old son’s body was also found laying just yards away from his mother. While we don’t know if the boy witnessed the murder of his mother or not, we do know he died an extremely painful death being suffocated by the smoke of the fire which had been set to the house.
Ten days later, Dereck Posey age 30, was arrested after police executed a search warrant, issued because of Amy’s cell phone and debit card being recovered. WHERE? Mr. Posey was a loose acquaintance of Amy who worked a temporary job at a nearby oil field. The police believe Mr. Posey murdered Amy and then purposely set fire to the house.
The surprising part is that in her horrible death, very few stories have been written or televised on this shocking murder. No wall-to-wall coverage on the networks. No opinion columns or radio segments filled with outrage. No political leaders calling for justice, even as this woman and her son could have been anyone’s daughter, neighbor or friend.
We might never know if Amy had an opinion on the George Zimmerman trial. And yet the Zimmerman trial will always have an effect on Amy. On any other given day, Amy’s death might have received more then a few local news packages. But with the world news being dominated by America’s supposed racism in the form of George Zimmerman stalking a young African American youth, the murder of Amy didn’t merit coverage. The death of a Caucasian female and her Caucasian son by an African American suspect did not fit perfectly into the all to convenient storyline in the liberal media.
This is why we have a problem with race in America today. Rather then have an honest conversation on how Americans should act and grow together, we find people using the murder of individuals to deepen the divide in this Country. Amy and her son are just two victims of murder that occurred during the weeks spent obsessing over the details of the Trayvon case.
We owe it to the victims of all murders to find out and recognize the truth regardless of their race. No one life is more valuable then another in the eyes of the Creator, and in death this too is true.