Jena 6
I would really like to hear your views on the Jena 6. I am trying to provide you with as much information as possible on this because I am sure you are aware that each media source you read puts a different spin on it. I know Wikipeda is not so famous for accuracy but they do provide additional information on the boys that were charged.
Here is another article that tells you that the first defendant had an all white jury, it also points out the fact that Jena is 85% white.
Believe me I am not saying that they deserve to be in jail for the rest of their lives but I do not believe they should be let off without any punishment at all. The punishment handed down by the school board was unjust especially in our day of zero tolerance. The boys should have been expelled from the school not given a 3 day suspension. However, that did not give anyone the right to take the law into their own hands and beat another person because they felt they did not get the proper punishment. What would the world come to if we were just able to go around and hand out the punishment we thought someone deserved when we felt like the justice system failed us?
How about rapist and child killers that get such light sentences? Should we just line them up after the trail and give them our own brand of punishment? That is why we have laws. I know racism is still a very true part of everyday life especially in the south and it is fueled by corrupt police departments and the “good ole boy” system. We must press on, we must change the system peacefully, and we must make the laws and the system fair and equal for everyone.
The Jena 6 is not a crime against blacks it is a crime against America. Until we start to believe that, nothing is going to change. We will continue to hold everyone to a different standard and think that there is nothing wrong with that. We can change things peacefully if we tried. Too know that in 2007 there are still schools in America you can go to that still hang nooses from trees is unbelievable. What is more unbelievable is that there are still people in authority that believe that things like that are just “pranks”.
I was raised in the south but I was not raised to believe that black people were of a lower class than whites. Not all people from the south have that set of beliefs. When incidents like this happen it reaffirms everyone’s believe that the south is still stuck in the days of slavery. It is changing, not as fast as we would like it to but as new people come into positions of power the “good ole boy” days of the south are on borrowed time.
There is a march being held today in Jena and we hope that it is a peaceful one. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, III and Rev. Al Sharpton are all expected to attend. Please stay current on this issue, if not here somewhere else.