1 800 Y T GUILT

(This is my Daily Kos diary entry for today)

Ohmy, all the navel-gazing and hand-wringing in the Blogosphere over the Jena 6! Like others here, I'm concerned that a front-page dKos post strolls down memory lane while there's a lot of work to be done on this issue. I'm also amused by the notion that the "black blogosphere" is annoyed with the "white-o-sphere" because the liberal white folks are coming very late to the party and still aren't doing enough to help the Jena 6.

On the subject of helping the Jena 6, let me also pimp blueintheface's diary from earlier today. I'd like to go a bit further and suggest a few more things.

Give to the Jena 6 defense fund. blueintheface already mentioned this, but let me re-empasize this. Even pro-bono legal work comes with expenses, not to mention the fact that these families have been turned upside down by all this. Hell, someone should probably start a fund to re-locate these folks to someplace where the kluxers of the local klaven won't come after them once the bright light isn't shining on Jena. And if you think that's not going to happen, consider the fact that they found a shotgun in the truck with the nooses today.

Contact the Louisiana Attorney General, Charles C. Foti and encourage him to start an investigation into the LaSalle Parish District Attorney's office. The Grand High Foti has had himself a helluva time sticking his nose into cases in Orleans Parish lately, so he's no stranger to flexing the muscle of his office. Be sure to remind Mr. Foti that, once upon a time, New Orleans Archbishop Rummel excommunicated a politician for refusing to integrate schools, so stopping racism is as important to the church as stopping euthanasia.

Encourage Democratic Presidential Candidates to visit Jena. If you really want to mess with the law enforcement agencies of Jena and LaSalle Parish, get Edwards, Clinton, and Obama to pay courtesy calls on the families of these young men. Those families need all the nelp and encouragement they can get. Of course, any visit from one of the big three Dems will mean that their USSS protective details are going to go with them. Those agents don't have a lot of patience for the KKK or local government officials who enable them.

Encourage the FBI to stay on the case. Yeah, the DoJ blew off the investigation, but that doesn't mean fed involvement has to be over. Write Director Mueller and remind him that most of the kluxers are really just criminals who need to be slapped down, racial implications notwithstanding. The political hacks at Justice may not care because of the Kanye West theory, but common criminals offend the institutional sensibilities of the FBI.

Speak up on racism in your community. Make sure your community doesn't become Jena. Consider starting a chapter of ERACE, an organization here in New Orleans whose mission is to open up dialog on racism with the hope that talking will promote understanding. ERACE has information on how you can facilitate dialog in your local community on their website.

Now, onto the subject of the colors of the liberal blogosphere. While I join with ProgressiveSouth in wondering why some of the major lefty sites in Teh Blogosphere haven't emphasized the story of the Jena 6 as strongly as perhaps they should, I'm wondering about this whole notion of the "black blogosphere" and the "white blogosphere." Maybe it's just me, but a lot of the black folks I know down here are pretty much still working on trying to make The Road Home program work for them so they can re-build their still-gutted houses in Gentilly.

Still, if there is indeed a "black blogosphere" that is upset with the "white blogosphere" about the Jena 6, I would strongly suggest that there might be a few things happening that are just a tad bit more important than the plight of six young men in Central Louisiana. I'd further suggest that the "black blogosphere" get off its Collective Black Blogging Ass, come down to New Orleans, pick up a hammer and help Habitat for Humanity re-build the Ninth Ward. Maybe I'm a bit selfish on this issue, but the 100,000+ black New Orleanians who were put on buses and shipped out of state might be just as important as six kids who like to fight.

You can ping this entry by using http://www.nola-blogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/ruebourbon.cgi/977 .