charlotte, north carolina. the biggest rally taking place last night in sanford, florida. let's look at these image, a mass of people gathering not far from where trayvon martin was shot dead from george zimmerman february 26th, the gathering taking place hours after sanford's police chief temporarily stepped aside but did not step down. the governor of florida has assigned a new special prosecutor to this case as trayvon's parents again call for zimmerman's arrest. >> i stand before you today not knowing how i'm walking right now, because my heart hurt for my son. trayvon is my son. trayvon is your son. >> just like to thank every one of you all for just showing us the love, the support, signing the petitions, and making sure that george zimmerman pay for what he did to your son. >> richard land is the president of the southern baptist conventions ethics and religious liberties commission. thank you for joining us this morning. >> you bet, glad to be with you. >> let me ask you your reaction to what is now really a movement surrounding trayvon martin. >> first of all, you can't help as a parent to have your heart go out to those parents who lost their son under such tragic circumstances. i think that we need to be very careful, however, that we don't have a rush to judgment. i am shocked frankly to find in a thank mr. zimmerman still has his firearm and not in any way, shape or form not put under probationary status. if a police uses his firearm in the course of duty as a matter of course is relead of his duties and put on desk duty and an investigation as to whether he used that in legitimate purposes. none of that has been done. i find that shocking. at the same time, racism is, to call someone a racist is about the worst thing you can call somebody in our society, and rightly so. and so we don't want to throw that term around flippantally. i think it's good the justice department is involved, the state government is involved and we need to encourage the authorities to do a thorough investigation, and make certain that justice is done, because of course, we sadly in this country have a history where in the past, oftentimes when the victims were black, there was not justice. >> right, and that's what you're seeing from the streets quite frankly, you're seeing people who say yes, we should not rush to judgment. we should have investigations, but we've waited before, and we've been disappointed. >> yes. >> i want to quote mark pinsky from cnn's belief blog. he said "few, if any white clergy have spoken up to demand that the killing be fully investigated, none can be seen standing by the african-american preachers calling for justice or marching with martin's family members." why hasn't this crossed racial lines do you think in terms of white clergy? >> i'm not sure it hasn't crossed racial lines in terms of outrage, that there hasn't been a more swift investigation and the fact that mr. zimmerman still is at large with his weapon, and with no restrictions. but at the same time, we do have people in our society who scream racism at the drop of a hat and i know that -- >> can you give me an example? do you see that happening here? >> no. there are people in our society, i'll leave you and the audience to decide for themselves who they are, who claim racism whenever there's a problem. for instance, let's take the o.j. simpson case. there's a divide in this country about whether racism is involved. i think when the o.j. simpson verdict came down, people were shocked. white people were shocked that black people were celebrating, because they didn't see racism in the o.j. simpson case at all, whereas african-americans, because of often a very different experience with police authorities than whites have, they were ready to believe that there was racism involved. so i think that you're going to find that the white clergy are going to want to make certain that justice is done, but they don't want to rush to judgment and use that racist term without real justification, because there is racism in our society, and when we scream racism at the drop of a hat, it cheapens the term, and makes it more difficult to deal with racism when there really is racism. >> dr. land, question though, can you at least see the racial dimension of this? this say young, black boy -- >> oh, of course, of course. of course, there's no question. but look, whenever something like this happens, the ghosts of the past rise up and they haunt us, because our past in this country is tragic, and it's sad, and there's no question that i've talked to many audiences about this, white and black, and i try to get white people to understand, when i see a policeman, or i see someone in uniformed authority, i'm comforted, because i've never had a bad experience with a police officer. i don't know any african-american personally who has not either had a bad experience with a police officer, or has a close friend or relative who has had a bad experience with a police officer. and so because of the past historical experience, there's a fundamentally different immediate reaction. >> dr. land, ryan with "the new yorker." do you think this case has reached a level now that some of the leaders, perhaps president obama or even some of the republicans running for president should step in and address it, or would that just sort of muddy the uissue? >> well i think you have to be careful. the president had a bad experience with stepping in too quickly to speak out about an issue in cambridge, massachusetts, a few years ago. >> yeah, that's what i was thinking of. >> we have the governor of florida involved now. we have the attorney general of florida involved now. we have the justice department of the united states involved now. i think we need to just be very clear that we trust the system to work, and the system is going to bring justice for all involved. >> i think we're going to be talking about this for days and weeks to come. dr. richard land, thank you for joining us this morning, president of the southern baptist convention, the ethics and religious liberty committee. thank you, sir. coming up live next hour, south florida congressman fredricka wilson will join the same discussion. she is slamming authorities for their what she says is their inaction on this. now let's head to deb feyerick for other headlines making news. >> good morning, christine, good morning, everyone. the army staff sergeant accused in the massacre of afghan civilians will be formally be charged today, robert bales faces 17 counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder and assault. if convicted bales could face the death penalty. the major hurdle is that the african victims were buried quickly in keeping with islamic tradition. as a result the prosecution does not have forensic evidence from occupancies in the case. we're learning before joining the military bales engaged in securities fraud while working as a financial adviser. according to financial records, bales failed to pay $1.5 million judgment for defrauding an elderly client in a stock scheme. and an overnight explosion rocks a silicon plant in portland, oregon. two workers were to the hospital with minor injuries, inside a chemical reactor doing maintenance when the explosion happened. the fire department says a stream of oxygen hit the reactor and caused the blast. new this morning, the writing was on the wall. u.s. officials confirmed the alleged gunman in the shooting that killed a rabbi and three jewish children in france was on the no fly list here in the u.s. senior u.s. officials say 23-year-old mohammed merah was listed as a potential terrorist. he's accused in two other deadly attacks. new government rules will allow u.s. intelligence agencies to keep tabs on americans who have no ties to terrorism. the new guidelines say agencies can store information on americans for up to five years. old rules said agencies had to throw out the information on americans who had no ties to terrorism. privacy advocates called the change "disturbing" but the obama administration says privacy and civil liberty safeguards are in place. in case you're wondering, this is why they call it march madness. number one seed michigan state goes down to number four seed louisville. the cardinals knocked off the spartans last night, 57-44 in the west regional, that sends louisville to the elite eight. syracuse, ohio state and florida also moved on to the elite eight last night. four more games tonight. and for fans of "the hunger games" the wait is over. huge groups of fans turned out for midnight shows at theaters across the country and have been tweeting their reviews ever since. "the hunger games" is the first adaptation of the wildly popular book trilogy by suzanne collins. it's expected to break box office records by the end of the weekend. a lot of people talking about it, christine. it's a great series. >> are your girls talking about it? >> they are, they're crazy, want to go see it. >> my sister is only 12 years old but talking about it for weeks. she speaks for so many. >> it's got some dark undertones and violence, too, so we'll talk later in the program about what age is appropriate and should your mom and dad to go with you or see it first. ahead on "starting point" a shocker for rick santorum. does he really think a second obama term would be better than mitt romney? plus whitney houston's cause of death revealed, how cocaine played a role in her drowning. and get real, a school writes a letter asking students to wear african-american attire, i'm not kidding, you got to hear this one. we'll leave with you a track from abby and mark's playlist, beyonce. you're watching "starting point." ♪ but what about your wrinkles. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it has the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to visibly reduce wrinkles in just one week. "why wait if you don't have to." rapid wrinkle repair. neutrogena®. recommended most by dermatologists. twenty-five thousand mornings, give or take, is all we humans get. we spend them on treadmills. we spend them in traffic. and if we get lucky, really lucky, it dawns on us to go spend them in a world where a simple sunrise can still be magic. twenty-five thousand mornings. make sure some of them are pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. ♪ beautiful voice of whitney houston "queen of the night." we know more about the last minutes of her life. she used cocaine until the very end. new detail its on whitney houston's death, the los angeles county coroner's office says she drowned accidentally and that drugs and heart disease played a role. >> we believe that something happened that caused her to go down, and we know that when she slipped under the water, she was still alive. we have evidence of drowning, so there was water in the lungs, so that substantiates that finding. >> houston's sister-in-law, patricia houston says, "we are saddened to learn of the action to kohl results although we are glad to now have closure." joining us is george kobilinsky, clinical psychologist why from georgetown university. >> pleasure to join you. >> what do you think were the last moments and what happened? >> sure, i think cocaine as a recreational drug is dangerous, a central nervous system stimulant and in fact it has a direct effect on the heart. it can cause tachycardia, and cause arrhythmia, the rhythm of the heartbeat is off and cause a vasoconstriction, the coronary blood vessels and oxygen is not allowed to come to the heart. if you've got hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. >> which she did. >> that means the lumen, the opening of the blood vessels is narrow. take that and vaso spasm, you have' got a myocardinal infarc, a heart attack. >> do you think she passed out from a cardiac event and slipped under the water? >> the most likely scenario, she became unconscious, unable to pick herself up out of the water. my hunch is if somebody were there, they probably could have lifted her up and resuscitated her, but i think that's exactly what happened. >> dr. kobilinsky i want to ask about they ruled she had drowned but then you read she had so much in her system, cocaine, xanax. >> benadryl, flexeril. >> how can they not rule this a drug overdose? >> actually i think it was a cocaine drug overdose. these are the dru, the other dr can be toxic but it's the levels, quantities significant here. drugs get metabolized by the liver and the body converts them to breakdown products and the levels of these drugs were apparently so low as to not be able to explain the death. they weren't even considered to be contributory. now what killed her is the cocaine. both chronic abuse and an acute dose of cocaine, and she presumably took this cocaine fairly soon, in other words, early -- >> close to when she died. >> close to when she died, exactly. >> the idea she was completely sober at that point in life, people saying she's been clean for months? >> well she was a chronic abuser, there's no question in my mind. she may have appeared sober but you know -- >> there's the baseline of sober. when she died people said she was sober n a good place. maybe she had a little champagne every now and now. there's hollywood sober and there's sober. this is a woman who struggled her adult life with substance abuse. >> exactly. you don't always detect when somebody is abusing drugs. >> atherosclerosis, years of cocaine abuse, how could that hurt your arteries? >> there's experimental levels with animals and cocaine chronic abusers they develop atherosclerosis. there are lots of other factors, age, genetics, diet, exercise. there are things people can do to prevent the buildup of plaque. >> could without using cocaine could that arteriosclerosis have caused her death in. >> by and in and of itself not. there was adequate per fusiofus. >> the autopsy results indicated approximately 60% narrowing of the artery, so the finding of atherosclerotic heart disease skugz an event complicated by the cocaine use. >> the research of the cardiac event and it's interesting, because the arteriosclerosis white people are more likely to be diagnosed from it but african-americans more likely to die from it, brought on by risk factors, high blood pressure and obesity, which weren't in her case but also genetic. >> it's familial. cholesterol and other fatty substances get deposited in the inner linings of blood vessels and these things get hard. some of these blood vessels literally are hard. they don't expand. and so if you do anything that will contradict these blood vessels further, it's a good possibility you're going to develop a heart attack. >> what about this long list of drugs that was in her system? is there anything we know about the interaction of xanax and flexeril? benadryl? is there anything that rings -- >> flexeril is a muscle relaxant, a prescribed medication as xanax is, used for panic and anti-anxiety. >> would that have contributed to the effects of the cocaine or is that simply separate? >> i think not. i think not. they're separate, they're prescribed medications. >> a lot of times people who are abusers there's no line between this is a prescription and this is illegal. it's one big global world of different substances. >> that's true. >> and some of those are prescriptions, doesn't mean they're any less dangerous taken all together. >> absolutely. physicians will prescribe these drugs. if you have access to marijuana and cocaine that's a whole added story on top of everything else. >> lawrence kobilinsky thank you so much. >> thank you. >> nice to see you today. >> pleasure. up next a teacher asking students to wear african-american attire for black history month. ryan's play list, "i might." it's a good one. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ full disclosure, will 92% of my playlist is u2. soledad has a diverse playlist, that was mine, u2 in 1985, 19 8. you can see our entire playlist on our website cnn.com/starti cnn.com/startingpoint. an elementary school under fire, a letter said "we are encouraging students to dress in african-american attire. if you do not have this, students could wear animal print clothing or shirts with animals native to africa, zebras, giraffes, lion, elephants, et cetera." the western union elementary school in north carolina saying while it was well intended it was poorly worded, yes and yes. >> what is african-american attire. i get the alternative, zebras and lions. >> what do zebras and lions have to do with african-american people. >> the africa part. >> it's the zoo history month. >> it's bizarre. what are people thinking? >> how do you take back a comment like that? how are you supposed to explain it? >> i'm going to get in trouble for saying this but i have some sympathy for whoever the poor bureaucrat at the school wrote this letter and trying probably, the intention was good. they wanted to celebrate black history day and just did it in the most insensitive way possible, but i have trouble jumping on people, you know, who are trying to do the right thing but just didn't get it right. >> you're so nice. >> i don't mind jumping. >> i had the same reaction. i know she probably didn't mean this at all. >> you mean the poor principal or teacher. i don't know. >> you just cringe reading it and you think oh, god, this person is going to be instantly famous -- >> especially now i brought this up earlier with the trayvon martin case, does this make it more helpful to bring up cases like this and right after she wrote that she's probably thinking oh no, this is the worst time this could happen. it's all over the news, this issue. >> exactly. maybe it could be a teachable moment. we now have a conversation about it, right? >> what i want to know is the racial makeup of the school. what is the race of this person? >> in this county. >> we don't know. >> it's waxau, north carolina, i'll go out on a limb saying it's predom innocently white school, just knowing the area. >> a well-ended but poorly executed that's what the agreement is. >> that's fair. ahead on "starting point" a former rutgers student convicted of a hate crime speaking out. he says he does not hate gay people. we'll hear firsthand from dharun ravi. plus president obama says ch china is not playing fair. and a cure for baldness, the promising new findings out this morning that none of the guests here need to be concerned about. from my playlist the killers "mr. bright side." be back in a moment. ♪ water, we take our showers with it. we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country. come realize water's true potential. dive in-to the waters of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. [ male announcer ] it was the kind of weekend that your friends are always going to remember... [ cellphone ringing ] and your neighbors... [ ringing continues ] ...would rather forget. [ ringing continues ] ♪ ♪ yes, if that doesn't wake you up you shouldn't go to work today, stay home. christopher farley's play list the white stripes "fell in love with a girl." "the hunger games" whether it's a good call to take kids like abby's little sister to it. >> i'm loving this playlist. everyone has great choices. a syrian military chopper apparently caught firing on peopl