The protestors hoisted signs in Jena last weekend.

Reverand Jessee Jackson and Al Sharpton rallied behind crys to “Free the Jena Six.”

Cameras rolled, the ACLU fought.

As the nation has sat appauled by the acts of blatant racism displayed by the nooses and the unfair treatment of blacks in Louisiana this past year I think we’ve all missed something very important.

Who are the students involved learning racist and violent behavior from?

The Jena students were 16 at the time of the noose and beating incidents last year.

2007 minus 16 is 1991.

These young men grew up in the 90s, not the cross burning, lynch mobbing 1970s.

The kids who dubbed the “white tree” – the kids who hung the nooses, these were children of today.

Where did they learn this hate?

Do we see this kind of blatant racism encouraged on TV or at school?

Racism is taught and learned in the home.

Where are the parents of the white boys? Why are they not interviewed on TV? Why are they not made to answer for this?

Because racism exhibited so blatantly today is a sensational issue we have let ourselves become swept away and failed to examine the cause.

Where the evil has come from?

I have not forgotten the Jena Six in all of this.

Yes, while the black students at Jena were young victims of a terrible act of racism, their actions were still a crime and spoke volumes about their influences as well.

The beating did not make me think of great Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr or Mahatma Gandhi.

It made me think of bullies on the playground. It made me think of revenge and hate.

What made the civil rights movements of Gandhi and the King so successful?

Non Violent civil disobedience!

Not beating up those who persecuted you.

The white tree never should have existed, the inadequate punishment for the noose hangers was appalling, but the actions of the Jena six were wrong too.

While the Jena incident shows the country that the fight against racism still needs to be waged, we should not hold these six students up as heroes but instead remember their actions were a crime.

I am afraid this fact is getting forgotten in the media shuffle surrounding the case.

Heroes do not beat people up.

King said in a speech honoring Gandhi on the eleventh anniversary of Ghandi’s death,

“In our struggle against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, I came to see at a very early stage that a synthesis of Gandhi’s method of nonviolence and the Christian ethic of love is the best weapon available to Negroes for this struggle for freedom and human dignity. It may well be that the Gandhian approach will bring about a solution to the race problem in America. His spirit is a continual reminder to oppressed people that it is possible to resist evil and yet not resort to violence.”

King was successful in his crusade because he refused to let his following become the evil they despised.

The Jena six fought racism with violence.

What is missing in Jena?

Who left this very crucial component, non-violent response, go untaught and unlearned?

This is unacceptable.

These six are not Rosa Parkes, they are not Dr. Kings.

They are junviniles who committed a crime.

Yes racism is horrific whenever and however it manifests.

Yes by trying the juviniles as adults and bringing charges of attempted murder rather than assault and battery was definitely exhibiting a double standard.

The media should pay attention to all of this -16 year olds are hanging nooses – it is mass-protest worthy.

However, let us not make kids who committed a crime, into heroes. Their behavior tarnishes the progress the civil rights movement has made and continues to make. Let’s instead take hard look at where the behaviors of all involved are coming from.