I don't see much of a movement. There are so many issues today that you'd think would be more than enough to have young people massively protesting on college campuses all over the nation - Iraq, global warming, an administration that frankly raises the question, for me, of whether we still live in an actual democracy as distinct from an oligarchy with some democratic trimmings.

As a baby boomer, I have the feeling nobody's going to be writing best sellers about us called "The Second Greatest Generation." We seem to have succeeded with indoctrinating subsequent generations with our core values of me, myself and I.

As the world's problems become increasingly globalized, America, in brief, seems to have it's head stuck more and more firmly - well... in the sand, to go with the ostritch metaphor and eschew a road best not taken...!

Paul - originalfaith.com

Sent by Paul Maurice Martin | 1:37 PM ET | 10-02-2007

First off, I would like a clear, concise definition of 'civil rights' because the term has been applied in such varying degrees I no longer recognize a civil rights issue when I see it. Next, I wonder if marching and protesting are the most prudent ways of gaining political power.

The Jena 6 case made protesting very easy. It was clear Bell was held to a harsher legal standard. People moved in on the situation and that standard was rightfully lowered.

What happens when the injustice is not as clear? What happens when there is a perceived social injustice, but no legal one? Is the same response needed?

Part of what is needed is the changing of minds. People can be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. and never break a law. Marches can help changes laws, but they very rarely change minds or attitudes.

There are many issues Americans need to address. IMHO the best way to protest is to resist the prevailing over-consumptive culture that permeates.

If we can learn to do without a lot of the worthless 'things' we spend our money on we will not only fare better financially we can realize (as a society) the things that are truly important. Not only is our material culture killings us financially it functions as a distraction to keep our minds off of what is truly important.

Sent by TR | 4:12 PM ET | 10-02-2007

I agree Ms Dickersons article. We as african americans have to police ourselves FIRST, before we go pointing fingers at folks outside of our race.
We cannot go around executing hood styled BEATDOWNS on white folks when they say or do things that we disagree with, THEN attempt to rely on a constitution that was written by folks who owned slaves. Reed Walters was to overzealous with the jena 6 prosecution AND way to lazy when it came to prosecuting the white folks who assaulted the young black man in a previous altercation. We can protect our young people by educating them on how to handle racialy tense situations - because lets face it this is one the first generations to grow up without Jim Crow - our young dont know how it used to be. We cannot mobilize a JENA 6 styled protest everytime something happens LETS prepare our young and let them know how the world REALLY is when it comes to black folks.

Sent by Russell Randall | 5:32 PM ET | 10-02-2007

No, the Jena rally was not misguided. Who is Debra Dickerson that she feels she can decide which actions are of value and which are not? I went to the rally and was surrounded by thousands of people who were saying, "Enough is enough." Jena was the flashpoint, but the issue is racism in America. I believe the protests forced people in America to confront the fact that racism exists and must be eradicated. At the least, people are talking about it, and that in itself is a great thing when you consider the power of denial.

Sent by Leslie Hall | 10:20 PM ET | 10-02-2007

Comments from an experienced trial attorney:....Key issues, ok?...
Victim impact reports were vastly different, correct?...Four months AFTER the first incident, September 2006, new incident involving Bell, and company...December 2006, White victim beaten unconscious after repeated attacks to the head, right? Serious bodily injuries....That attack considered attempted murder with any criminal intent to attack a person's head [closed head injury to the brain may be initially undetected. Boxing deaths teach us those lessons, right? Sure]; and, the law for most states' criminal statutes recognizes that eventuality. Victim may die days later from attacks.... White victim is now suing the school, the black defendants and families, and John Does 1-10, right? My, my how the worm turns....Black victims, misdemeanor injuries at best, right?....Whites convicted....Black US attorney refuses to file a US civil rights action against Whites...I concur. State took care of the prosecution of the defendants. Not worth spending federal monies for a PYRRHIC victory,...poor whites, right?...Question for the jury:...Think about it...Was the heat, passion of the September 2006 noose incident and subsequent attacks cooled by December 2006, the time when the white victim was attacked? Just raising the questions! by W. DeLoach, Chicago

Sent by Wendelin W. DeLoach, Esq, Chicago | 2:41 PM ET | 12-28-2007

RE: Jena6...It gets worse. Apparently, another member of Jena 6 is now charged with a violent attack on yet another high school student in a completely new and different set of circumstances. Seems as if this new incident took place at another school. Was this in a different state? Reports indicate that the accused lost his temper about damaged - he believes - done to his car by his latest victim. Apparently, this latest violent assault may have a tremendous impact on his still pending Jena 6 matter. As we follow these young defendants through the system we uncover more about their violent tendencies.

Sent by Wendelin W. DeLoach, Esq. | 4:13 AM ET | 02-11-2008

WHO WILL CHANGE THE WORLD?
ONLY THE SUBMISSION TO GOD
Submission Shall Be The True Revolution Of Change

In This reference of time I denied myself of the true missions upon this earth, man shall not succeed in the congregations of freedom until he submit to God, Know religion shall save you,, Know worldly riches shall protect you, only the submission to God. There is know power upon this earth, only if the approval comes from the all mighty God himself, and the son of the son's Jesus Christ,

I was deprived of myself of my own body, soul, and spirit, and I am free only because I succeeded in escaping the clutches of man ,who claimed me as his property, within the darkness of his adventures, the light appeared upon my face, Remembering the words of the almighty know weapons shall form against you, through my thermals and extensions of un reprisal detention, I reclaim my self from the destruction of the devil who created his self as the earthly God, made my escape into emancipation, a free state, and it is a pleasing coincidence the survival of the land call beast anthology, who so ever understand my horology, I shall not be removed, under the constitution of blackness, documented by the creator of ruler, the almighty whispered in my ear, before I reach this place call earth, remember son we are one,

I stood at the walls of reimbursement, in the Royal Chambers of deliverance, in the stroll of emancipation of inheritances, yet I sing not the song of slavery, I was never a slave, I was emancipated through my mothers womb, and injected by my fathers seed call roots, and combining my historical roots, my brothers for life, stood upon the Calvary as the black rivers that poured in my sanctuary, succeeded by the voices that was branded within my soul, to un fold the hidden secretes of my people, who sat at the majesty stool, of great maestro, implemented and ordained by the Almighty one God, the precious Jewel, The almighty one God who rules.

11

The excitement that lingered within my space of time, when the celestials light beamed upon my eyes, and a voice appeared upon the light, you never were a slave, as the contentment continue to un-fold, and the voices continued to mold, the frame of a dead soul, came back to life, at last increased so much that it was thought better for me to release the rusted due upon my hand, and upon my feet, get out of the way, the darkness resolves upon thy eyes, and the body took own a new form, under the hypnotic strain of plagues that centers the inner soul of de' man, the master demon, might use some strategies to get me back into his clutches.

I am here then in order to avoid the scent of the bloodhounds of Satan, spreading light on the subject, slave inducement, the mentality of slave system. There is nothing slavery dislikes so much as the light. It is a gigantic system of iniquity who continues to breed from the blood stream, and their shell be know anecdotes, the only anecdotes to succeed the power of its toxins, is the Almighty God of Love, The Son of darkness that feeds and lives in darkness, and, like a tree with its roots turned to the sun, it perishes when exposed to the light.

111

I shall sing no glory to the serpent in the name of master; Un controlling inferno's is allowed by law to hold his slave; as his possession and property, indoctrinating a man, that is held in capture of his own assisted death, like a moderate case of retardation, inclusion and sanctions by the darkness of thought, which means the right of one man to hold property in his fellow. The master can buy, sell, his slave as well as any other property; he shall decide what the poor slave is to eat, what he is to drink, where and when he shall speak but the truth is written in the sand. He also decides for his affections, when and whom he is to marry, changing the blue print of the almighty God, God said a free man is a righteous man, and then came the servant of the devil changing the scripts of the all mighty God, but every thing that live upon this earth shall fail, if it is not approve by the almighty God, Look around you family , children, civilizations that live in the land of hate and deception, oh your outlaw bible has know presentation in God' house, and, what is more enormous, how long that marriage covenant is to endure; abandon his roots of self; The slaveholder exercises the bloody power of tearing conformity those whom God has joined together of separating husband from wife, parent from child, and of leaving the house of love, vacant, and the heart desolate.

1V
I want to awaken the slaveholder to a sense of the iniquity of his position, and to draw him from his nefarious habits of breeding to encircle Black Conciseness of African American with a sedentary of Anti-slavery fire, that will reflect light upon the darkness of institutions, and alarm their guilty upholders, The artistic inception of the oppositions of recovery, defining dignity upon death, Our primary objective has been the resurrection. The subscriptions of various Master litigations in position to a world, that continues to accept the misleading and un factual concepts of freedom, upon the free, Accessorial obligations to the constitution that was shed in the warriors of emancipation, blood that continues to flow upon the rivers of black ropes, to celebrate and exhibit the experience an original African American scripts of scholar logy , under the emancipations of freedom, Research, exhibition, education, And performed, there is only one God, and what is not approve by him shall fail, going back through the front doors of creation, the blue prints of the one God shall be the freedom of the rightious who up hold the degree of the Almighty God the university of freedom.

Sent by jacqueline amos | 12:12 PM ET | 07-03-2008