"That Tree Looks Green To Me."

By Sr. High Youth, E. P.

Hopefully you have heard about the Jena 6, in Jena, LA. If not, here is a brief overview: Racism has always existed in Jena, LA, but this has only recently become known to most people. Last year at Jena High School, the white kids always sat under a tree outside during lunch, breaks, etc. They deemed it the "white tree". One hot day, a black student wanted to sit under the tree, for shade. He asked the principal if he could, and the principle had no problem with it. So the student, and a couple of friends sat down. The next day 3 nooses were found hanging from the tree. The 3 white kids who did this were only given three days of ISS. A while later six black students beat up a white student. Now these six (Jena 6) are on trial facing various punishments. (to read about the may other incidents leading up to this, : google "Jena 6", wikipedia and cnn.com have good articles)

The real problem is that we took care of racial injustice legally, but it still exists socially, unfortunately. It is so awful thinking that people could have sooo many problems in their lives that they have to lash out at something so ridiculous as skin color. Like bullies: they have so many problems in their own lives that they have to take it out on something/someone else. It is so hard for me to imagine even thinking in that way, because I was not alive before the civil rights movement (as most of us weren't). I have never really understood the reason that racism exists. In my mind it is the equivalent to hating all people with curly hair, or blue eyes.

To show my support for equality, I did something very new last Thursday. I got up at 6:00 and Lanecia came to pick me up at 6:30. We drove downtown, and met up with, Ciona, Hannah and Keller, and Hamilton United Methodist's youth pastor Amanda. We went to Bicentennial Mall, close to the capitol building. We walked for justice . . . from the park to the capitol building (or somewhere around there). We had a police escort, and channel 5 news was there. We gave Nashville a small taste of what was going on in Jena.

After I got to school, we had an assembly about this issue, and I learned a bit more about this situation. The noose incident was even more offensive than most of us would have thought. According to Coach Pittman (my history teacher last year), about 50-60 years ago, in the south, young African Americans could be taken from their homes and hung. So it was a very offensive thing for these students to do, and even more offensive is how the school board brushed it off like it was nothing.

On the walk, a small rock got in my shoe. I tried to walk a while with it in, and I just tried to make it go to the front of my shoe, where I couldn't feel it. I eventually had to stop, step to the side and try to get it out. I was in a hurry, because I didn't want to get separated from my friends. I walked a little more and realized that the rock was still in my shoe. At this point I was getting quite frustrated, so I stopped again and made sure I got it out. Throughout the day, I realized how much this story relates to racism. Racism in our country began early, with slavery. We lived with it for a while, then we realized that it was hurting people, and made laws against it. We thought that we got rid of it, because many of us were not affected personally by it. Now we have realized that it is not gone; it was just an illusion. This time around, we need to extract it completely from our systems, not just legally, but in our hearts.

I really liked how when Amanda was talking about the so-called “white” tree she said, "that tree looks pretty green to me".

Read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21.

14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Since this is a rather long passage, I would like to focus on 14-15. It says that Christ's love compels us to believe that he died for all. Not just people with blonde hair, or green eyes, or old or young people, or mean or nice, but ALL people. People means anyone that is human, deriving from the Latin word homo, which means "man or human being". I think that this passage makes it pretty clear that we are all equal when it comes down to the really important stuff, and therefore we should all think of each other as equals in everyday life.
Questions to reflect on:
1. How do you interpret 2 Corinthians 5:11-21?
2. If you knew about it, what did you do to support the Jena 6, on Thursday?
3. Do you have any ideas about how to support equality, and justice, and wipe out racism once and for all? If so, what are they?

If the Creator of the Universe made ALL humankind, in his image at that!, I have an idea that he didn't mess up, no matter what others say.