I protest this protest.

Today 60,000 people converge on the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana to protest the unfair treatment and prosecution of six young men, members of the football team, who knocked another young man unconscious and proceeded to stomp and kick him while he lay on the ground helpless and unconscious.

The incident was the last one in a series of racially charged conflicts among the youth of the community.

Oh yes, the six young football players who did this were arrested and charged with serious felony charges. One of them was convicted. It is said that this was unfair.

And so the forces have gathered to protest his sentencing. After all, they feel he should not be punished for his actions because he is black and he was convicted by an all white jury. On the surface this looks like a just and righteous cause.

But maybe we need to look beneath the surface. There are many unanswered questions.

The one question that has not even been asked, much less answered is why that jury was all white. After all, 15% of the people in the community are black and they should have been represented on the jury panel. It must be some Southern inspired injustice, right?

I agree, black persons should have been on that jury as well as white persons and I have been researching the reasons they were not.

It seems that at the time of this young man's trial, no black prospective jurors showed up for jury duty. That seemed a bit odd to me, since a representative number of black jurors were called for jury duty that day.

I looked further into this. At this point in time, with the situation getting national attention, no one is talking. However, a couple of months ago, immediately after the trial, there were quite a few comments by area residents.

It seems that the six young men involved in the beating incident are known area troublemakers. They are the terror of their neighborhood, their black neighborhood, where they create mayhem and are feared by all. Two of the prospective black jurors told multiple community members that they had not shown up that day because they did not want to be on the jury. They feared that if they voted to convict the young man, his family and friends would burn them out of their homes; that the young men were violent troublemakers and that the community was better off with them in jail.

These prospective black jurors stayed home and hoped that the white jury would convict the young man on trial that day and make their community safer.

It is said that the conviction is unfair because the young man who was beaten was not seriously hurt and went to a party that night.

In fact he went to the ring ceremony at his school, where his classmates give vivid descriptions of how disoriented he was, of how they had to lead him around as his vision was so blurred, of how they had to help keep him upright in his chair and to keep cleaning up the blood that seeped from his ears.....

It is said the prosecution of these boys is unfair because they are black and there were racial incidents that prompted their behavior.

My Daddy alway said that two wrongs don't make a right.

Wrong things had happened in that community. There is no question of that, but that does not make it right for six young football players to jump another young man between classes, knock him out with a blow to the back of his head, and stomp and kick him while he lays unconscious on the ground.

No amount of other wrongs done makes that a right. It was a vicious attack and should be prosecuted and punished as such, no matter what color the attackers.

And so I protest this protest.

More than 60,000 persons from all over the country are descending on the sleepy Louisiana town of 3500 mostly law abiding citizens. They are coming to protest the unfair prosecution of these six young men, these six young football players who perpetrated a vicious, six on one attack of another young man to punish him for calling them names. They seem to think that attack was justified by previous events in the community. I find this attitude alarming. I was taught that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" and that it was wrong to attack someone physically if they called me names, even if those names included a racial slur.

Nothing justifies that kind of violence.

The protesters say they come in the spirit of the marches in the 60's, to protest wrongs committed by Southerners against the black race, as evidenced by the treatment of these six young football players.

I am so saddened by this comparison, as I was there in the 60's and at that time the cause was righteous and just. The proof of their success is evident today in Jena, Louisiana. The Jena 6 were prosecuted for their violent acts, in the court system under the law. The one young man who has been convicted has appealed the conviction and won the appeal, again in a court of law.

Justice came to the Jena 6 in daylight, in a court of law, not in the middle of the night at the end of a hangman's noose.

It seems that should be cause for celebration, not protest.

Angel