Trayvon's Cries for Help.

Today's announcements in the Sanford, Florida case confirm something I suspected way back when...

In addition to the sugary Skittles, the young man was carrying a lighter in his pocket, and had THC present in his blood and urine, indicating fairly recent drug use, not just that stored in his fatty tissue. Suspended from high school for similar reasons, the young man had been sent by his mother in Miami to stay in Sanford with his father -- presumably to straighten the boy out, to give him a man's guidance as he was in that delicate transition that affects male youth of all races: boys to men.

The drug use, the suspensions ... those were clearly cries for help. Nevermind whose voice it was on those tapes. Clearly, judging by the photos, the once joyful youngster had become a heavy-lidded teen. Surly looking. Calling himself a nigger in his Twitter handle, talking tough during his too-short time peeking in at the adult world.

What happened there, exactly? Not the night of the shooting. Turns out, George Zimmerman might have been telling the God-honest truth afterall: he spotted a suspicious-looking teen young man, whom he suspected might have been on drugs, based on his odd behavior that night in the rain. Did Zimmerman have a second sense? Or did Trayvon's actions simply tip him off to the truth?

Should Zimmerman simply have turned his head? Pretended he didn't see the boy, wandering in the neighborhood aimlessly, with no apparent direction home? Some seem to say yes. Not your concern. Kid wants to do drugs, let him be. Get back in your car, wait until a crime is committed before you begin keeping your eyes and ears open to what's going on around you...

Except, there were those burglaries. Reasons enough already for interest in unknown persons -- black or white, young or old -- wandering the neighborhood. Did Zimmerman confront the teen, ask him what he was doing there, or otherwise try to draw him into conversation to gauge his state of mind? Try to determine if he was impaired, or was simply lost? Is it odd where you're at to have teens wandering the street in the rain, allegedly looking at the homes? Would you pass on by, or would you be concerned enough to want to know more?

I suspect Trayvon's mother revealed a bit more of the truth too, when she said she understood that Zimmerman didn't go out hunting for a hoodie-clad kid that night. She said she understood things ... got out of control, and she wished George has seen her boy as just that: a boy, still growing, with plenty of good and bad decisions still before him, if only he could have lived long enough... I'd bet dimes to donuts that the mother had seen the side of her son that George Zimmerman was confronted with that night.

C'mon mothers of surly teen boys, especially those in an ... experimenting phase. Standing up to Mom, teachers, bus drivers, storekeepers. It's a rite of passage for plenty: eventually they want prove themselves, to push back against the authority they perceive to be over-controlling them.

Years before, he had the discipline of team sports. Not much dissension tolerated on the playing fields. But that was not this Trayvon, the one who emerged in the later pictures released, who self identified as a nigger gangster wannabe (which just a few short years ago -- timed to the rise of rap -- replaced the basketball superstar as the role model for black youngsters with limited life options. Goodbye Hoop Dreams, hello ghetto superstar...)

We're not there yet -- at the point of having an honest conversation here. Too bad really. Trayvon could have been saved. Tough love. Instead, the black pundits fall over themselves making excuses, pointing fingers, none seemingly willing to address ... perhaps in the end, it was the drug use, the poor choices, the impaired behavior, that might have led the young man to attack a Hispanic guy, whose only misstep might turn out to be wondering what was going on in his neighborhood that night.

What if Trayvon's father had kept the boy grounded, kept him home, supervised, and had simply told his girlfriend to go out to eat herself alone that night: that his son, his boy, needed his presence more that night...

If we don't have the courage to address the honest facts honestly, it's as though Trayvon died for nothing, really. Surely the bright-eyed, optimistic, happy-looking youngster -- dressed in his popular American brand clothing, beaming in the pics as he's being exposed to diverse things like fishing and snowboarding -- deserved better.

What really happened to take Trayvon so far off track? How do we prevent that from happening to other boys, black or white? Do we really care enough to distinguish between kids doing drugs, and consentual adult use, which leaves too many of us looking the other way, making excuses, thinking it's just a phase he's going through.

I'm waiting for those conversations, for those issues to be addressed by the black pundits who got out so far ahead of themselves on this one. Something tells me though: they won't want to go there. Doesn't fit the scripted narrative, so to speak...