September 21, 2007 10:45 AM

Action Still Exists

We often call on you to take action from your keyboards: sending letters, signing petitions, donating to progressive non-profits.

In Louisiana right now, there's a fight that needed to move to the streets: the protest around the Jena High School students and a case that reveals the severe injustices that still exist in our justice system.

Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but "the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people."

People began massing for the demonstrations before dawn Thursday, jamming the two-lane highway leading into town and parking wherever they could. State police estimated the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000. Organizers said they believe it drew as many as 50,000.

This is real action -- and I'm hopeful that we'll see real justice...or at least a tempering of the injustice.

Action doesn't always require taking it to the streets. Just two weeks ago, in Texas, Governor Perry stopped an execution. That case, like the Jena 6, resonated with the ugliness of racism in our justice system. The course of that case was changed by phone calls and emails and a more keyboard-driven advocacy campaign.

But it's good to know that when our country does need to hit the streets, that there are people willing to do it.