Therein lies the division

So, Think Progress thinks that the only thing that George Zimmerman is famous for is killing an unarmed teenager.  Therein lies the basic division between liberals and conservatives (if I must use those terms); liberals think that George Zimmerman should have been unarmed, should not have fought back, and should have allowed Martin to kill the "Creepy-ass cracker".  This is central to modern liberal philosophy; do not defend yourself, expect others to do it for you, be a dependent victim. Juxtapose this with a more conservative approach; conservatives think that it is a good thing that George Zimmerman was armed, that it is good that he was able to defend himself when physically assaulted and that the fact that he survived the assault was a good thing.  Believe it or not both sides agree that they wish it had never come to that.  But as unpopular as it is to say, it was Martin's choice that night, not Zimmerman's.  He thought it was clobberin' time.

I suspect that Zimmerman wishes he was not famous for anything.  But if he is seen as a symbol of anything to conservatives, it is of the reason we have the right to keep and bear arms and right to protect ourselves.  There is no justice, no great moral victory in allowing one's self to be killed by another man or in killing another.  But there is no great crime in defending one's self from lethal force from another. If Zimmerman had been killed by Martin, the tale would never have been told outside of some local report in Sanford Florida - another "creepy-ass cracker" found dead.  In the end, Zimmerman's life would not have been worth the the page space to tell the tale.  it would have been like every other story we hear on our local news, fading into anonymity.  But because he defended himself specifically against Martin, who could serve as a useful poster "child" (a misnomer) for liberal causes, with lethal force, the fact that he did not allow himself to be killed made him famous.

So this is what we get from Think Progress:

"The only thing Zimmerman is famous for is killing an unarmed black teenager. And he is, in many ways, the poster child for Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. “I walk around armed; I walk around with a bullet proof vest; it’s not so much for my safety as it is so much for those around me,” he said. “I can be around my family and something might happen to them. There’s children around me, etc. Those threats… I have to be able to defend myself like any American.”

Please:

1.  It would be more accurate if you at least ended the first sentence with "...who was attempting to spatter his brains on the sidewalk".  He is famous for defending himself with lethal force. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous.
2.  The case was not a "Stand your ground" case - when will ignorant people figure this out?  Stand your ground is solely an issue of duty to retreat.  When you are on your back, with a larger man on top of you, pounding your head into the pavement, you have no duty to retreat.  This was a clear case of self-defense law with no SYG implications.
3.  Sounds to me like Zimmerman would rather he were not famous at all - I bet he wises that Martin had made a better choice that night.  But given Martin's choice, Zimmerman was left with only bad options.  I hope he prefers his unfortunate fame to an untimely death.