Remembering Ron Goldman

With FX's American Crime Story premiering this past week, I was thrown back to 1994 and the time when a sports figure's murder trial  was plastered on every newspaper, magazine and tabloid, hijacking tv programs for months and being an endless topic of water cooler discussion and heated debates.   

What was apparent then and remains apparent now was how Ron Goldman is lost in the shuffle of celebrity, domestic abuse and racial tensions.  He was unidentified when the murders were discovered and it's sad that even today, he is a second-class citizen behind the killer and Nicole Brown.

Nothing against Nicole - - she was a victim and most certainly did not deserve what befell her - - but she wasn't the only victim.  Ron lost his life too and he did so while trying to help her.  Painful enough that he's been relegated to footnote status in the entire saga but very few people acknowledge that Ron was a hero.  As his sister has said, he could have saved himself when he either saw Nicole dead on the ground or witnessed her being attacked but he didn't do that. 

So much ink has been spilled about the killer's violent streak, his womanizing, his repetitive legal troubles - - the public seems more interested in idolizing him than the young man who put someone else's safety above his own.  It's shameful.  Shouldn't we know that Ron Goldman was a loving son and brother, close with his father and sister, dedicated to his friends and who dreamt of one day opening his own restaurant?  That's the person he was and that is what his killer robbed him, his family and his friends of.

When I think of this case, my first thought is always of Ron and my heart breaks for him.  We were almost exactly the same age in June of 1994.  I got to turn a year older in July; Ron did not.  Every life experience I've had since then, Ron has been robbed of.  Every holiday I've been able to spend with my family, Ron hasn't.  

If you're reading this, I ask that you take a moment to think about Ron.  Remember this young man doing a quick favor for a friend, who was then going to head out on a normal evening with other friends, not knowing this compassionate nature he had would be one of the last acts he'd perform.  Think of his joyful smile as pictured here, his zest for life.  Say a prayer for him.  Think of him when standing in the sun or doing a good deed.

Most of all, think of him.