Here's what I sent to the Shreveport Times regarding the protest marches in Jena, Louisiana yesterday and the coverage of the event:
"We are told that it is a good thing to treat people as we would like to be treated. So I do that, treat those I meet with good humour, be they white, black or whatever. I do my part, I hope, to make the world a better place. Then I'm told by a newspaper columnist or editorial writer that the world hasn't changed...what I've done has been for naught, or seemingly so.
"But I don't think so. The events in Jena yesterday are nothing like the civil rights movements of the 60's. It doesn't even begin to approach a semblance of that time. People in Jena have cable/satellite TV and internet...they know what the world and the country is like...they're not stuck in the 60's. Jena is a small, simple town but it isn't ignorant. 95% of the people there are good folks and they treat each other quite well. You'll always have the dumb ones, the bad apples in the barrel, and every town around the world has those. America doesn't have a monopoly on that. There's racism in every country and many of them still have slavery. We just make a bigger deal of it here because we Americans are so absorbed with self-guilt that we continually foist on ourselves.
"Here's the real question: When will we know that equality has been achieved in the United States? Here's the simple answer: We never will know. No bar of accomplishment has been established for us to aim at. As long as we have race baiters like Jackson and Sharpton, there will never be a claim of equality. They'll find something wrong somewhere and we, as a nation, will be trapped in these webs forever. Somebody will be insulted or offended or treated ill, usually by a very small representation of mankind that will reflect on everyone else who's trying to do the right thing. Did ANYBODY notice how well the protesters were treated in Jena? Sharpton wanted water cannons and he didn't get them, and that's because Jena's not like that. Jackson wanted whites throwing rocks at the protesters and he didn't get that either. It was actually a dull day in many ways.
"America has accomplished more than any other nation in the area of equal rights within our own borders...I dare anyone to prove otherwise...yet there are so many who can't see that and still want to live in the 60's. Well, I don't live there anymore. I live here and now, and I'm doing my best to make the world better within my sphere of influence. It'd help if some of these media opinionators would try to do the same thing and actually make the world better instead of only telling us how bad things are."
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