Trayvon Martin's mother pens open letter to Michael Brown's family


Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, wrote an open letter of support Monday night to the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
"I wish that all of the pain that I have endured could possibly ease some of yours but it won't," Fulton wrote in the letter, published by Time. "What I can do for you is what has been done for me: pray for you then share my continuing journey as you begin yours."
Michael, like Trayvon, is more than a statistic, Fulton wrote:
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Michael is your son. A son that barely had a chance to live. Our children are our future so whenever any of our children — black, white, brown, yellow, or red — are taken from us unnecessarily, it causes a never-ending pain that is unlike anything I could have imagined experiencing. [Time]
Fulton also described the "sorrow and anger" that goes along with having the "killer of your son alive, known, and currently free. Even when you don't want to think about it because it is so much to bear, you will be forced to by merely turning on your television or answering your cell phone."
Fulton ended her letter by urging the Browns to "honor your son and his life, not the circumstances of his alleged transgressions. I have always said that Trayvon was not perfect. But no one will ever convince me that my son deserved to be stalked and murdered. No one can convince you that Michael deserved to be executed."
Read the entire letter at Time.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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