I've Never Heard Of Jena, LA But It's Coming Apart

So I was wondering why the Reverend Jackson wad complaining that Obama is acting like a white man. Naturally Brother Jesse tends to get a bit overwrought so I wasn't wondering real hard but still, wondering.So I put it in the back of my mind and went about my business. I mean Jackson and Obama, if they fight one would root for both of them to lose by a knockout.

So I was looking at the puppyblender's site and found out what Jackson is so excited about, seems that the '60s and '70s bypassed Jena and they are having those same kind of troubles the rest of us in the south went through forty years ago.Well, Jena is off the main highways but one would think they'd heard something by now.

Seems the trouble started over the white tree. Now I don't think it was covered with snow, I think the white kids liked to congregate in the shade of one tree. This is, beforof course, unthinkable. After all they can have black tables and black dorms at universities but white kids can't congregate, it's racist. And we don't get separate but equal trees, either.

So the black kids tried taking over the white tree. Trouble is, white and black still don't get along in groups. Individually most of us get along, I don't think David Duke of Louis Farrakhan (sp?) have many friends of a different hue but most everyone else does. As individuals. Most black folks I know get a tad nervous when they're surrounded by whites, most whites have the same problem in reverse. Note: before screeching about my horrible racism please note that the black tables and black dorms in college don't come from white folks. I notice trends and comment, doesn't mean I approve.

Now came three nooses hanging from the now bi-color tree. It seems the school authorities "knew" who did the nooses and expelled three white kids, the school board turned the expulsion into three day suspensions.

Then somebody burned down the building where the school board met. Now conventional wisdom says that the nooses were hung up by whites, although many of the recent examples seem to have come from blacks trying to call attention to racism. Much of the perceived racism lately has been not paying enough attention to how bad the situation that blacks find themselves in. Some how it is my fault when black kids beat each other for "acting white" if they study. And it is certainly my fault that 70some percent of black kids grow up in fatherless homes. Seems I would have noticed getting all that stray poontang but it's all my fault.

So now I'm noticing that a town of less than three thousand at the last census had a demonstration of thousands. Now I don't believe those six black kids ought to be facing felonies and it seems strange that I read of a white kid pointing a shotgun at black kids in a convenience store. Last I heard there were rules about kids running around town with a gun.

What I would really like is some honest news. It's no surprise that folks don't get along, there are entire industries built on making things worse. I would like to think that no DA would be dumb enough to try to railroad black kids but then there is Nifong. I would like to think I'm getting straight info about Jena but there is the whole of the mainstream media at Duke.

What I'd really like is for us all to fire all those bright young kids who went to J-school to "make a difference" and hire some bright working class kids who can spell "cat" and would like to make a nice middleclass income telling us what is happening, we could all decide on our own what to think about it. We'd all think something different, of course but we'd have a chance at making informed decisions.