Jena 6

By now, all of you have probably heard about Jena 6. It involves a group of African-American students in Jena, La. who were charged with attempted murder for the beating of Justin Barker, a white student. This was after a group of white students hung three nooses from a tree at the Jena High School. Many people believe that the charges that were given to the African-American student were excessive and this has caused a national outrage. Mychal Bell, the student who is believed to have initiated the attack and the only member of Jena 6 to be tried, could have faced up to 22 years in prison! He has been incarcerated since December of last year. I think the way this was handled completely wrong. I do believe there was racism involved because Virtualy nothing happened to the kids who hung the nooses from the tree. Also, Bell was tried as an adult when he was 16 at the time of the incident. The age to be tried as an adult in Louisiana is 17. Bell’s charges were later reduced to aggravated battery and conspiracy. I think more should have been done to the students who hung the nooses. According to U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, the FBI agents who did the investigations of the noose hangings said that it “had all the markings of a hate crime” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201404.html). Even with this, no charges were filed because they were juveniles. As much as we like to believe that racism no longer exists in today’s society, it does and this is a perfect example. This is just wrong people.

Collegiate vs. Pro

I've debated over this topic with people for a long time. There are definitely benefits at both levels of sports. At the professional level, the game definitely moves faster and the players are more skilled. Also, people love to see and cheer for their favorite stars like Peyton Manning and or LeBron James. Personally, I prefer college sports. The atmosphere before a college football game is very exhilarating and that’s what I lve about collegiate sports. In my opinion, it’s more exciting and I like the tradition behind it, with rivalries such as Ohio State and Michigan in football and North Carolina and Duke in basketball. What draws me to collegiate sports is the pureness of it. Unlike professional sports, the players aren’t paid millions of dollars to play a game. For the most part they play for the love of the game. This is not to say that professional athletes don’t love the game, it’s just that they have other motivations besides enjoyment, like the money, that makes them keep playing. I think players like the aforementioned LeBron James missed out on a great experience by going straight to the pro’s from high school. Both levels have their drawbacks though. Some say that the money in professional sports makes players do crazy things, which is true, but we’ve seen cases where college athletes get caught up with the law too. Take University of Florida safety, Tony Joyner, for example. The point is, I think college sports are slightly better than professional, as far as watching is concerned.