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   With incidents happening like the recent ones in Jena, La., I worry about the reputation of the South and how the rest of the United States might perceive us. The white students responsible for the nooses at the Jena high school didn't even get expelled, but merely suspended for three days. I got suspended for five when I skipped a day of school in junior high.

   If it was up to me, hanging a noose would be a hate crime, punishable by prison. I constantly hear people ramble on about the importance of their traditions despite the fact that some of those traditions consist of close-minded, primitive ways that any decent person should be ashamed of. Instead of admitting such and trying to improve upon the ways of their ancestors, many people celebrate such ways and somehow convince themselves into thinking it's something to be proud of.

   I recently learned that the victim of the Jena Six beating made racial slurs just prior to being attacked. Though some in Jena deny this, is it really that hard to believe since this is a school where white students hang nooses and forbid blacks from sitting at certain trees? The victim also had been in trouble for bringing a shotgun to school and more recently has dropped out of school altogether.

   Of course, I'm not saying he deserved the beating, nor am I condoning the actions of the six African-American students; I'm merely pointing out what probably motivated them and, more importantly, that they don't deserve to be tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison. It's also worth mentioning that the victim, despite going to a hospital after the beating, attended a school function later that same day.

   It's too bad I don't run things in Jena because I could have preempted all of this simply by expelling the students responsible for the nooses for the rest of the school year and by doing the same to the students responsible for the beating. Then again, had the students responsible for the nooses been expelled, the beating may never have occurred. Instead, the white students get suspended for three days and the black students face life in prison. And people wonder why there's chaos in Jena …

   If I was black and had to attend a school with "white trees" and nooses, it would only be a matter of time before I snapped and wanted to beat someone up, too. The chaos in Jena falls on the small minds who run the town. The sooner these types of people can leave behind their traditionalism, regionalism -- or whatever they've tricked themselves into hanging onto and being proud of – the sooner they can become a member of the 21st century.

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