On the Today Show, Trayvon Martin’s mother called the shooting of Trayvon an accident:
One of the things that I still believe in, a person should apologize when they are actually remorseful for what theyve done. I believe it was an accident. I believe that it just got out of control and he couldnt turn the clock back. I would ask him, did he know that that was a minor, that that was a teenager, and that he did not have a weapon?
Which is what he said later at his bond hearing:
“I am sorry for the loss of your son,” he said. “I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I did not know if he was armed or not.”
I hear you, he was telling the mother. Dr. Boyce Watkins, at KultureKritic.com, is not amused:
I havent spoken with Al Sharpton in a few months. But if we were still speaking and he were to ask me what to do with the mother of Trayvon Martin, my answer would be very simple: Get her off the stage right now.
It hurts the case, yes, but at least as important, it takes from the narrative, does it not? He says the same thing at Huff Post.
Meanwhile, Martins mother raised eyebrows with her own comments on Today about the accidental nature of the case, but she clarified what she meant in another interview later in the day. Sybrina Fulton told The Associated Press that she was referring to the chance encounter between Zimmerman and her son.
Their meeting was the accident, Fulton said. That was the accident. Not the actual act of him shooting him. That was murder … They were never supposed to meet.
Yet and still, we still have the revealing response from the good doctor.
Later:
Yet another yet-and-still notification:
This is a redundant conversational convention. As both adverbs have the same meaning, you only need one.
Yet and still, he did not change his ways.
Yet he did not change his ways.
Still he did not change his ways
Personally, it’s something I picked up in civil rights and related gatherings of the 60s. A black usage, I presumed and stillpresume.
Blithe Spirit 