A bit too much to overlook.

I was going to write this blog post about the book, about the number of pencilled pages I got finished today, about the temperature and bug infestation problem at work... but I can't. I really just can't.

I was reading through the journal of a friend of mine, and came across the story of what's going on in Jena, LA right now.

For anyone who reads this and hasn't heard about the goings-on in Jena, Louisiana, I ask that you do a little reading. Generally, I'm pretty low-key when it comes to politics and government and justice system stuff. About as close as I get to that sort of thing is cop-dramas on tv. But this story is just a bit too much for me to ignore.

I'd like to say we've made progress, in this country and/or in the world. I'd like to say that we've moved on towards being a single race - the human one. But there are pockets of history still alive and well and living in the world. Apparently, Jena, LA is one of those pockets.

I've read over several of the internet documentation, and the jist that I have gotten from them is this. There was a trespass - some African American students went to sit underneath a generally Caucasian shade tree (the idea of that is a little far-fetched to me, but hey, who knows. I never thought you could segregate SHADE.). Afterwards, three caucasian students hung 3 nooses in the colors of the school from said shade tree. Some time passed, more things festered, there was more trading of hurt and anger between the two sides. The final "straw" in this case came when the retaliation turned physical - in some manner, a Caucasian student was assaulted by several African American students.

What is NOT clear in this is how many African American students actually assaulted the student, who it was that started the fight with the Caucasian student, and why nothing was done before this to stem the anger that caused it.

What IS clear is that one of the six students charged has been found guilty with "aggravated second degree assault and conspiracy to commit secondary degree aggravated assault".

What seems to be the consensus is that the defense attorney didn't do enough for his client.

It's hard to know exactly what's true and what isn't, being this far removed from the situation. There's a lot of chatter on the net, there's a lot of news articles. So on the one hand, I'm really in an uproar about the idea of the way this trial is being handled, but on the other, a group of students (of whatever size, and of whatever skin color) beat up another student. I'm equally as uneasy at the apparent "miscarriage of justice" as I am the group beating.

Getting jumped like that, to use the colloquialism, is terrifying. No one should go through it. Being convicted in a trial that's sitting on a slant rather than an even keel is likewise something terrifying that NO ONE should go through.

Come to your own conclusions. Here's the links I found:
Friends of Justice: Ineffectual Assistance of Council: What Blane Williams Should Have Known
Schools Matter: Nooses in the School's White-Only Shade Tree
Bill Quigley|Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang from the "White Tree"
Racially motivated attacks in Jena, LA. | Council of Conservative Citizens
Topix - Jena News

And, if you feel the urge, here's the petition that's circulating:
Jena Six Petition