Schoolyard Fights and Newspaper Ads Trump Iraq War
It's amazing what Americans will get riled up over and what they won't. It took four years before a massive demonstration could be organized in the capitol to protest the Iraq war, but it didn't take much at all to get 10,000 people together to protest the Jena 6 situation.
The teenagers, who have come to be known as the Jena Six, are part of a court case that began in December 2006 when they were accused of beating a white classmate, and a local prosecutor charged them with attempted murder. The beating was preceded by of a series of racially charged incidents at the school, including the hanging of nooses from the branch of a tree which some students felt was for white students only.Any time black leaders feel one of their own has suffered from racial injustice, they get people fired up against it. As well they should. There's no doubt that the people who hung the nooses from the tree are ignorant hicks. Their minor punishment, a simple suspension from school, was not appropriate for what they did. To call it a prank is just wrong. The real issue, though, is whether or not the charge of attempted murder for the Jena 6 was too severe for their crime. This is something I don't have an opinion on, since I really don't know the details of the incident. What I do know, from personal experience, is that reason takes a vacation when racial issues arise. I don't deny that there are still racial problems in America, nor do I deny that blacks too often get the short end of the stick compared to whites. We've still got a long way to go on that front. But what I really don't understand is why people are so quick to get angry and take to the streets for six black students on trial for a potentially bogus charge of attempted murder in Jena, Louisiana, but are so slow to do anything about the 160,000 American soldiers, of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, who are facing death everyday in an illegal war started by a corrupt administration. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that there are so many who are willing to speak out against racial injustice. But isn't the situation in Iraq an even greater injustice? It's not just the lives of our soldiers in jeopardy, it's the security of our nation. Are the Jena 6 more important than the entire United States of America? What about the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died in the senseless violence that was caused by our invasion? We set the stage for that, so the fault is on our shoulders. Not al Qaeda, but the United States Government is responsible for the mass casualties in Iraq. As responsible citizens, is it not our responsibility to demand that our troops come home? Even our political leaders are trivializing the war. The Democrats were given control of the Senate with a mandate to end the war. Now, the Senate has passed an act to condemn MoveOn.org's newspaper ad attacking General Petraeus. The act passed by a vote of 75-25. How's that for sensible priorities? Our soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians continue to bleed and die in Iraq, but how dare MoveOn.org insult General Petraeus! The Decider got into the act, calling the ad "disgusting". No less could be expected of him, but the people who really need to be condemned are the Democrats who voted with the Republicans. This vote was disgraceful. As long as the American people and those we elected to get us out of the Decider's Big Mess give more priority to schoolyard fights and newspaper ads than to our brave men and women in the armed forces, nothing is going to change. Now I finally know what our military is really fighting for.
Jena is in Louisiana, not Alabama. Get your states straignt, if you are going to write about the story. As for the war in Iraq –I don’t know personally of any black people who supported it in the first place. Blacks view it as a white man’s war –as most whites voted for Bush. Curious, huh?
Jena is in Louisiana, not Alabama.
Thanks. Too many racist hicks in both states. Easy to confuse them.
I don’t know personally of any black people who supported it in the first place. Blacks view it as a white man’s war –as most whites voted for Bush. Curious, huh?
No, nothing curious about that at all considering that Bush is a Republican. You know, the majority white party of bigots, religious nutjobs and homophobes.
My point, though, was not whether or not blacks or whites support the war. There’s nothing racial about it. Blacks are dying just as well as whites, Hispanics, and Asians. Plenty of people of all races are against the war. But there’s a big difference between being against it and doing something about it.
It just seems to me that, considering the threat to our security and the number of lives cut short, protesting the war is something we all ought to be doing, but aren’t. We’re quick to get riled up about other things, like the Jena 6 and the General Betrayus ad, but I feel all of that is trivial compared to the war.
White kids smash a bottle on a black kids head causing serious gash and many stitches, nobody is charged. Cops know who did it, its just a schoolyard fight, they say. Black kids punch a white kid for yelling the n-word repeatedly causing minor bruise, he goes to ER for dramatic effect and is release immediately– without treatment –and later that day attends a school sports event. He’s fine. Black kids are charged with attempted murder! One of them is convicted of a felony assault/battery, his conviction is thrown out, but he is not granted reasonable bail. (Where do they think he will run to?) In perspective, white kids placed rope nooses on a tree on school property, provoking many of the ensuing incidents. Principal calls nooses a prank. No prank, — a terrifying threat to any non-white in proximity and a serious harassment to anyone else. Are the white people down there just too stupid to feel shame for this? And what about that little (won’t use the word that should go here) Justin Baker — the big mouth white kid who caused all this trouble? What does he have to say for himself? Has he apologized for ranting the n-word and other obscenities or at least told the prosecutor that he declines to press charges?