Evie Talley Moser ----- To my family and friends. Some of the lessons I have learned in life have taken a long time. Never did I think that the truth was not told by the media......The following is only half the story. You have not seen anyone from Jena on T.V. that has not been edited so noone white or black is talking other than the Jena 6 families. This is a draft I am working on for Anderson Cooper who I used to love......... There is a lot more to the story that I am not brave enough to write .... and justice for all Since when does a community of people get ridiculed and labeled as a group of people who need a good bath on national TV? The mistakes of a few (on both sides of the issue) should not give political license to label and name-call an entire community. The media is painting a picture of Jena with contrived information. We are dupes to make others feel good about their own prejudices. Justice dropped the ball in America not just in Jena . Since when can a community of people take on the legal system and win? Everyone knows, after OJ, that you need a good lawyer regardless of race. The unfair treatment by the justice system is a NATIONAL problem. Jena is a good place to call home How dare Anderson Cooper point a finger at a community of people and say it's like the 60's, when in fact the little rural town of Jena is one of the only truly integrated high schools in the area? Is the media reporting the news or creating it? Play the color card and find out how much the white community of Jena helped the New Orleans victims of Katrina. This is a caring community, a nice place to call home. Pay attention to Bill Cosby. Prejudice is more about economics than color. The average family income in Jena is about $30,000 according to the latest census. Legal professionals interested in the almighty dollar do not live in Jena. Help us find our next judge or District Attorney who will give up a law practice and work for that salary. Lawyers in Jena have a vested interest in the community a place they call home. Look all over America tell me Watts did not happen, or Newark NJ does not need help or Compton and Pomona CA do not exist. What about New Haven Connecticut ? I taught High School for seventeen years in Southern California and then chose to live in this little rural town in the South where there is little crime, no gangs and people had a wonderful 50’s attitude about family, God, and service to the community. Most black and white people here are poor but at least they are not being shot down in the streets and well behaved students have an opportunity through school to raise themselves out of poverty. There is a sense of family and community for all races in Jena but when a culture tolerates fatherless families, attacks on students, burning of buildings as the answer to problems it will promote the decline of that community. What facts is the media basing its judgment of this community on? I have heard we are being used as a lighting rod of what is wrong in America CNN. Look at the school annuals, homecoming courts, and sports. Check out the Jena High School football roster just published in the Jena Times this week, come to the homecoming football game, than tell me there is more racial prejudice here than anywhere else in America or several other countries thought-out the world. If I were black, I would want my children to live in a community just like Jena where the color card is not usually played to take advantage of a system that keeps poor people poor. ( New Orleans) When Jena took the Dixie field in sports this year we were the only community in Alexandria with a black and white infield? Whites moved to West Monroe to leave black Monroe and Monroe has a new 7 million dollar mostly black high school. Check out Alexandria and the all black elementary school. The media made it sound like our schools are unfair and they are not. The schools are environmentally poor and look like they belong in the 60's. The teachers are dedicated loving members of this community. Like in the 60's, the jobs available for professional women are in the teaching and the medical field The main school building, like the tree you keep showing on television is no longer there. Our students are going to class in the gym and trailers. Do your homework before labeling. Get the facts and stop the character assassination of the schools, churches, newspaper, legal system and people in a nice place to call home. It is a real lesson to see first hand how the media takes a picture of facts and crops them to create a different picture rather than showing the original, without cropping .This little town (approximately 3000), with it's ratio of whites and blacks (85% white) mimics the entire nation, prejudice and justice alike. When the media is done labeling and the justice system corrects itself like it seems to do Jena will have many scars from the staged media coverage, (parade thought town with four locals other than the Jena 6 families) but it will still be a nice place to call home for Americans. Liberty and justice for all. Evie Talley Moser