EXACTLY!

And, it is because we who were not there and do not know the full story "react" as the news media wishes us to are called "Bleeding Heart Liberals" or worse. The media creates a drama to get the interest of their readers or viewers. That creates an interest and a desire to continue gleaning information about the situation (much like a soap opera will hook viewers).

Those of us who do not live there will react with the compassion and empathy I believe an intelligent human needs to have as part of their repertoire of abilities to help them deal with their fellow man.

So, we are branded "Bleeding Heart Liberals" which further reinforces the convictions of those acting out of their own ignorance. The more I read and listen to news from other countries and cultures, the more this realization is reinforced in my own life.

Guy Smiley, thanks for the post and the background links. This is so hard to believe...when I started reading I thought you were making a point by putting a 2006 date on a 1955 story. I'm dumbfounded that this still goes on today.

I am sure there are many sides to the story, but even if the school could ignore the racist angle (hard enough to imagine by itself) in these days of hypersensitivity to school violence and the dangers of bullying, how could they POSSIBLY let the noose hangers off with the slap on the wrist?!? Like whilemanitou, I've mostly lived my life in more tolerant places, so a story like this feels like satire, not altogether believable.

Per Ann's comments, do these kids have good lawyers? Is there a legal aid fund we should know about? Is there some way for those of us not there to show support?

Anyone with ideas on actions we concerned out of towners can take, I'd love to hear.

Having lived in the rural south and having experienced real live segregation and discrimination in the 50's, I believe there is another issue here. I say this because I have seen and experienced it myself. Imagine "tight fisted", impenetrable cliques formed from childhood.

If "Billy Bob" and "Brenda Mae" have been neighbors all their lives and one of their friends does something stupid to someone (regardless of skin color), their clique, their families and the families of their clique partners are going to defend them to the death. In small towns there is a much different mentality than in a big city. This goes way back to after the civil war when the opportunists (carpetbaggers) came into a defeated, proud people and took advantage of them. It is a mentality you really have to experience to understand.

If any of you ever saw the movie "Easy Rider",I have been told the cafeteria scene was REAL. When the actors came into the restaurant, that was the welcome they received. The director (or whomever) decided it was great and offered the locals payment to continue. BTW, that was rural Louisiana because La is the only state down there with "parishes" instead of "counties". "Ah dont bahleeve theyall make the Pahrish lahn."

The only thing we as intelligent citizens of the world can do is make an "attempt" to look at all the circumstances and address ALL the issues; not just the ones the news media uses to "hook" our attention. If we "see" or have seen more than meets the media's eye, we need to educate each other and communicate with our politicians.

I can remember my disappointment when I saw that the water coming out of the "Colored" fountain wasnt purple, blue, yellow or red.

For those of you who have been in the USAF, the extra restrooms for the instructors at some of the tech school buildings on Keesler AFB WERE for the "Colored" Airmen way back in the 50's.

Several hundred years from now when the races are all intermixed and everyone will probably have asian features, I wonder what the new criterion for difference and subjugation will be.

As a liberal who's Labor Union organizing father brought many black friends into mu childhood home, a former husband of a African/American & father of two interracial kids I must protest your laying out the "Facts" of the case. The black kids did not get into a fight. They attacked & severely beat a lone youth (white) who had nothing to do with the hanging of the nooses. Was the noose hanging despicable? Most assuredly. Did the "hangers" get off too easy? Yes! Were the 6 black kids that beat the lone white boy over charged? Yes! Lots of blame to go around on this one But PLEASE if you are going to relate a story tell all the facts, not just the ones that serve your point of view.

THANK YOU for making the point I was (apparently unsuccessfully) trying to make. The media only gives us part of the story or misleads us. This is further complicated when people relate events that only present their point of view.

Picking my wife up many times at shopping malls when she was frightened, angry and upset after having been harassed by young black men and having (on several occasions) been helpless on a walker with 5 herniated disks and a freshly implanted metal knee being harassed and berated by black males who knew nothing about me except that I was very white with a beautiful woman. I get a little "upset" when the media jumps on something like this and emphasizes only the facts that will "sell and get more viewers".

The behavior on both sides of these incidents was reprehensible. God did NOT "color code" humans. There is ignorance, bigotry and hatred wearing all colors and shades of skin. "Getting back at Whitey" and offering up symbols of an age of atrocities will do nothing but perpetuate hatred.

It's time for reason and logic.We need more like you to keep us all on track.