I just started this up today. There was none, so I thought there should be. Beginning with the Jena 6, the Carnival of Injustice will kick off on Wednesday, though the regular posting day will be every other Friday. Since the Jena 6 case is so major, I am posting all the links we have gained from the last week or so in conjunction with our blog campaign. Check out Injustice for more details on how to get in on the carnival. It’s for all injustices in the world. What’s your cause? Post it there.
Thank you to those who have rallied against the treatment of the boys in the Jena 6 fiasco. I just read about how one of the boys had all the charges dropped! Mychal Bell is still being held for bail, though. They are still unclear as to if they will charge him as a juvenile…but he is NOT being charged as an adult. I have no doubt that those of us who have taken a stand against injustice have made our voices heard in this case. We are having great effects. Don’t stop now! Keep posting. Keep rallying against injustice! We can change the outcome for all the boys!
I have to get on with my blogging as usual today, though I don’t feel like it. There are things I want to blog about, but they all pale in comparison to the issue at hand. I guess I have to just trust God and believe that these boys will be sentenced fairly. I am not saying that they should get off for assault, but their sentences were wayyyy out there. Fair justice is all I ask.
Last night I was watching Biggest Loser. I tend to not watch that as much as Celebrity Fit Club, but this time I am drawn in. The possibility that the black team will come out as the dark horse and defeat the other two teams just makes me want to watch, root for them, encourage them in my thoughts. What they set out to do seems impossible, but it is attainable through their determination and will power.
I am searching for my own determination right now. I have so much that needs to be done physically, mentally, spiritually…but I have no desire or will to do everything that entails. I want to lose at least ten pounds. I want my flat pretty stomach back. I will even settle for flatter than it is now. I don’t have to look like I did when I was 16. I will settle for what I looked like 3 years ago. I want to burn my sage every day and commune with God on the side porch. I want to finish my book and start the next one. I want so much. I just really need to get on the ball and DO it.
If you recall, I did a podcast on the outrage of the Jena 6. These are the six children who have been condemned for defending themselves against physical attacks spawned by hatred. The first boy will be sentenced on the 20th of this month. With only ten days to the rally, you can still make a difference, you can still change the future for these boys. Sign the petition, read about their plight…blog about it. Tell your family, friends, people you don’t even know, people you don’t like…everyone. Something must be done to change this situation for these boys.
Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the “white tree” on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a “prank,” more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town’s police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy… I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”1
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Imagine it was your child, beaten and bloodied because of the color of their skin. Imagine it was your child, threatened and thrown into jail due to someone else’s disdain. Picture yourself in their shoes, in their parents’ shoes. Can you guess how you would feel as a sibling to one of these boys? A friend? A relative? A classmate who didn’t foster the same racist hate?
If you can, go down to Jena and take part in the protests against their inevitable fate. Al Sharpton is spear heading the march against the treatment of these boys. Go to Color of Change.org. Read about their plight. Sign the petition on their site and Petition ONline. Blog this. Digg it. Stumble it. Post it to all the social networks you know. All it takes is few minutes to save lives.
If you do blog this, leave me a comment with the link to your post. Please include a link to http://www.colorofchange.org, a link to my friend Marisa’s blog entry, and one to this blog entry. I will be putting your link in a post or page on this blog on the 20th of September. Our goal is to get as many bloggers as we can to join in this effort to save lives.
My mom and I were just chatting on the phone, when she heard on the news a disturbing discovery about “Cheese” heroin.
By using the name “cheese,” drug dealers are marketing the low-grade heroin to a younger crowd — many of them middle schoolers — unaware of its potential dangers, authorities say.
For only $2 a hit, a kid can get a lethal dose of heroin mixed with downers like you would find in over the counter sleep aids. The interaction of the two drugs brings one’s body functions down so low that it is nearly impossible NOT to die. The drug is snorted like cocaine. At least 21 people have died from using “cheese” since 2005.
One of the father’s spoke up about his 15 year old who died using the drug. He thinks it was his fault for not talking to his kid more about the dangers of drug use. I don’t see it that way. If I tell my son not to go in the refrigerator because there is an alligator in it that will gobble him whole if he does, and he decides to go in there anyway it’s not my fault. I warned him. I told him of the danger. He chose to do what he wanted and suffered the consequences for his actions. As a parent, you can only teach your child about the dangers of the world then pray that they heed your advice. They have free will and can decide whether or not to do what they have been taught is right. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s what we all have to live with.
I feel badly for the parents of the kids who have died at the hands of this menace. I hope that schools and parents can launch an effective attack against the drug before more children die.
The do-follow trend is spreading, and with it there is a wave of people taking advantage. These people don’t follow in their comments, though. They only come to leave comments on your blog and gain backlinks for their own page ranking purposes. It’s rude. It’s indecent and we’re not going to take it anymore.
Here is the footage that someone taped so we could see what was said on the Good Morning America show. What the last speaker says is true. It will take someone getting killed before people take this seriously. That is the saddest part of it all.
“One of our fellow bloggers will be on Good Morning America talking about cyberstalking. She will be talking about her own experience with a stalker.”
Cyberstalking is the equivalent of stalking except that it begins online. No one should have to fall victim to these psychopaths. Please take the time to watch the show tomorrow morning and lend your support to those who have decided it’s time to come out of the shadows, bury the stigma, and make it real for law enforcement officials.
