hell breaks loose in jena... you didn't get the memo?

This is my disclaimer: I do not want to swear. I will try not to swear, but considering the circumstances - if I do, please understand. That being said, I would like to share a troubling story with you; these event's occured a long, long time ago (september 2006) in a land far, far away (jena, louisiana). In a local high school that is 80% white, 3 of the 85 black students in the entire school asked school officials if they could sit in the shade under some tree in the school yard. *(First eyebrow-raiser: it is an intergrated school; students share the courtyard. why in hell are they asking permission to sit down under an MF tree? but the students know their environment way better than I do, and I guess they were just making sure.) The powers that be told the students it was fine; they could sit wherever they wanted. And they did. The next day, the same tree had three nooses (Yes, i can spell. Yes, you can read.) hanging from it. Apparently, some of the majority students did not agree with the school officials. While the principal wanted the students expelled, the superintendent felt the nooses were a "youthful stunt" that deserved nothing more than a slap on the wrist. *(Second eyebrow raiser: did anyone notice if the superintendent had a white hood sticking out of his collar?) All kinds of violence and calamity ensued. Yet delusional Murphy McMillan, mayor of Jena, Louisiana, had this to say: "Jena is a place that's moving in the right direction. Race is not a major local issue. It's not a factor in the local people's lives." If by "right direction" he means "backwards", and if by "major" he means "acknowledged and addressed, and if by "not a factor" he means "totally affects everything we do, whether we are conscious of it or not." - Then hell, I totally agree. Either Jena has a small Af-Am population,, or this isn't an election year....Some BS...