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Thursday, March 29, 2012

"Where Truth Lies..." 'Michael Herr' (Aloha Friday)

 Renowned author Michael Herr is back guest blogging on this awesome Aloha Friday about where truth lies within the context of the recent news story concerning the shooting of a Florida youth Trayvon Martin.

(News story from Washington Post concerning the recent shooting of Trayvon Martin)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-prosecutor-taps-experts-to-review-911-calls-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/2012/03/27/gIQAp0bWeS_story.html

Michael is happily retired and pursuing his dreams of writing and publishing books, he currently lives in Walnut Creek California.  (Michael is pictured above with his latest book,"The old Queen and the Maui Maiden." To purchase this book or any of Michael's 6 other novella's go to; http://www.michaelherr.com
ALOHA FRIDAY
March 30, 2012


It's Aloha Friday.

Where Truth Lies

Aloha folks.
It seems we have our own little version of the Japanese classic Rashomon in the news lately. Have you read the story, or seen the movie version? In brief, a bandit kills a husband and rapes the man's wife. But when the local magistrate investigates he gets three slightly different stories. One from the bandit. One from the wife. And one from the ghost of the dead man. At the end it is left up to us, the audience/reader, to determine who is telling the truth. Or what the truth there might be in each story.
Now, here's our own newest version of this classic story.
A young man down in Florida went to a store one night. On the way home another young man saw the first young man and thought he looked suspicious. The second young man called the police and voiced his suspicions. Despite being told to stay where he was he got out of his vehicle and began to follow the first young man. Minutes later the first young man lay dead. And here is where this story begins to sound like Rashomon. The second young man says the first young man jumped him, hit him in the nose, and slammed his head against the ground. He admits he shot the first young man and killed him. A girl who was on the phone with the first young man heard sounds of a scuffle. A witness, or two, now says that he saw the second young man on the ground. Others say they heard a cry, but whether it was from the young man who was shot or from the young man who shot him they can't say.
There has been talk about the second young man muttering racist comments into his phone while approaching the first young man. There has been note made of the fact that the first young man was tall and strong. That the first young man was wearing a 'hoodie' seems to figure into this whole matter in some way.
The only facts that are apparent from this whole incident are that one young man, carrying a gun, killed another young man who had done nothing wrong up to the time that the second young man confronted him and questioned his right to be walking in that neighborhood.
For now we have only the young shooter's account to go by. We have no ghost to tell us a different story.
Thus, as in Rashomon, we are left to determine where the truth lies. But truth and lies are so frequently intertwined.
Okay folks, see you next week.


Encore-Hana Hou, Please check out this you-tube of a singing dog! 
For more of Michael's writings go to http://www.michaelherr.com

Editor's note, Dakinetalk guest bloggers do not necessarily represent the opinions of dakinetalk. Guest bloggers are given space to express their beliefs and or opinions. We feel there are many roads and like to give people space to express their thoughts,after-all that's what dakine is...Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen, Publisher.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-prosecutor-taps-experts-to-review-911-calls-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/2012/03/27/gIQAp0bWeS_story.html