I don’t care what color his skin was. 

I can’t get past the rainbow of color in his pocket.

    Rainbow Skittles.

    Because those skittles say more about who he was than the dark hoodie that lent him a temporary tough-guy persona.

    He was just a kid -with candy in his pocket.

    A teenager.

    I know a thing or two about teenage boys.

    I’m often surrounded by them. And most of the time, I actually like them.

    They’re smart and funny, idealistic and passionate, silly and sweet. 
Unlike girls of their age, the boys are comedy instead of drama, action instead of words. They don’t adhere to a hidden agenda or look for the subtexts in a message. They don’t hold grudges or take offense where none’s intended. They’re much more what-you-see-is-what-you-get than the girls, simpler in a lot of ways.

But not in all ways. 

While raging hormones can reduce girls to hysteria, similar hormonal havoc can turn boys from mild-mannered to mad-mouthed. Instead of tears and tantrums, there’s a bubbling bravado that can spew forth like lava without provocation.

    And if they’re provoked? Well, they’re easily provoked.

    That’s where it all gets complicated.

    Teenage boys are straddling a thin line between boyhood and manhood, with unsure footing.

    In bodies they don’t yet fit, these straddlers are dealing with some weighty expectations –the world’s, and their own. Many of them are pretty confused, adrift, lonely even when they’re surrounded by friends. Often simmering beneath the surface of who they’re trying to become is a noxious mix of angst and anger. They have control of neither.

But for their age and gender, it’s unlikely that Michael has much in common with Trayvon Martin. Michael doesn’t look like Trayvon Martin. 

    He couldn’t be the victim of racial profiling.

    In our tiny town, though, Michael also doesn’t quite look like everyone else. That factor alone doesn’t usually get him in trouble.

    On the other hand, it does garner him a bit of attention.

    Walking down the street one evening, my son was stopped by the cops. It was 8:30. He was in the company of two girls. They were carrying a small yellow bag of Swedish fish.

    Pretty suspicious behavior.

    The cop asked the teens to show them what they had in the bag and they obliged. They didn’t have to; Michael knew this. I wonder if he had been accompanied by teenage boys instead of girls, if he would have been so willing to reveal the contraband.

    Because I’ve seen Michael’s anger. I’ve also seen him keep it in check. Luckily.

    Our teenage boys encounter authority figures –parents, coaches, teachers, principals, police officers-hundreds of times in a week without incident. The kids respect the authority; the adults don’t abuse it. However, in a head-to-head battle between man and teenage boy, it’s up to the adult to keep his head. Because as difficult as it may be for a man to maintain control in the face of an insolent teen, for a teenage boy to keep that same composure may be a taller order than he’s able to handle.