We would like to think it takes a lot to astound us.
But we might be wrong because we have been astounded a lot lately.
Just when we thought we got over our astonishment at the Wendover Needs Report we chatted with two of its authors and were flabbergasted yet again.
Yes they admitted their report was incredibly wrong in many places but no they weren’t sorry for the errors.
We actually had to ask one if he wasn’t blushing.
He said he wasn’t so we will take him at his word.
We really, really wish he was.
This Needs Assessment isn’t a joke.
It is a official report disseminated through all manner and means to private companies and governments.
If done thoroughly and honestly it is a very useful tool both for cities and private enterprise to find each other.
If done poorly these reports damage the credibility of the city, and dissuade new developers from giving the town a second look.
And why should they?
If a city publishes a report about itself that is chock full of errors how can anyone expect city staff to deal honestly?
It would have been better this report had not been done at all than published in its current format.
Yet for some odd reason this report is still being released from the city’s website. We wonder if any were actually printed and sent out to various destinations.
We know it is embarrassing getting the facts wrong,
But pretending they aren’t wrong or they don’t exist doesn’t make it better.
It makes it worse.
We finally get Trayvon Martin.
We got George Zimmerman a long time ago.
A super hero wanna be who appointed himself the guardian of his community and got a thrill from patrolling his neighborhood in his SUV and packing heat.
But we never got Trayvon.
As a former 17 year old boy and the father of two 17 year old boys we could not understand just why Trayvon confronted that “creepy a*** cracker” in the first place rather than just high tail it out of sight.
Then we read and reread the testimony of Rachel Jeantel who was in contact with Martin in the momments just before his tragic killing.
According to her testimony and to the texts they were sending back there while there was a racial component to coming confrontation that would lead to Martin’s killing it was vastly over shadowed by a sexual one.
For the two teens there was just one reason why the short, pudgy 30 something George Zimmerman was following Trayvon that night and it wasn’t because the 17 year old boy was black and wearing a hoodie.
Fag bashing as it was known in our day or homophobic rage as it is understood today was probably the reason why Trayvon ambushed Zimmerman and proceeded to beat the snot out of him.
Trayvon was not standing up to a white vigilante, but in his mind teaching a queer a lesson not to mess with him.
It was a case of mistaken identity.
For Martin it was a fatal error.
We wish it never happened but if wishes were horses beggars would ride.