Posted by
Tracy Robertson on Sunday, September 23, 2007 9:26:00 PM
I love Laura Ingraham - she is the tough talking, no-nonsense, conservative talk radio host that helped start the Power to the People movement against that ridiculous amnesty legislation the democrats were trying to pass. She is the author of two best selling books Shut Up and Sing and Power to the People. I have both books and agree with her on 99.99% of what she says (I don’t know what the .01% is that I disagree with her on but you can’t agree with someone 100% of the time so I threw that in for good measure). She has empowered me to make use of my vote and my dollars in helping to direct this country in the right direction.
When I heard about the unfair charges brought against the six high school boys in Jena, LA I thought this was right up Laura’s power to the people alley. The DA in Jena was overstepping by charging these boys with second-degree attempted murder for a school yard fight stating that the deadly weapon used was a tennis shoe.
I e-mailed Laura this information as well as many other talk radio hosts and politicians hoping to get momentum to bring this unjust situation to the national stage. I didn’t get a response and I was ok with that. I understand that Ms. Ingraham probably receives hundreds of e-mails a day.
The momentum did pick-up after organizations began planning a protest march in Jena on the day of Mychal Bell’s sentencing. As the participation levels grew to the thousands, many media outlets began to report what was happening in this small town.
I listened intently everyday to Laura’s show waiting to hear what her position would be on this situation. I really believed that she would have been outraged with the charges and impressed with the power to the people moment that was about to take place with the scheduled protest march.
On the day of the march, Laura was outraged by a question asked of President Bush during a news conference regarding the Jena 6 protest march. Laura believed the journalist was trying to link the problems in Jena to the Presidents administration and that sent her into a tail spin. Her comment about the protest march was, and I am paraphrasing, I don’t know the facts of this issue but if Jesse Jackson is involved it must be illegitimate.
No, it was not illegitimate. What was happening was a power to the people moment. People across the country were outraged at the unequal justice in the case of the Jena 6. Working families took time off from their jobs to travel thousands of miles to Jena because they were passionate about this cause. They came, not at the request of Jesse Jackson, but because they felt there was injustice taking place in Jena and they wanted to let the DA know they would not allow it to continue.
So, where was Laura Ingraham?
Currently she is touring the country on her Power to the People tour. Her goal is to fire people up to use their voices and power to keep this country on the right path. Isn’t that exactly what the protestors in Jena were doing?
Where was Laura?
Didn’t the fact that over 20,000 people from as far away as California came together to let their voices be heard warrant an informed comment from the queen of “power to the people”? Why didn’t this protest get more than a passing rant about Jesse Jackson? Was it because Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were involved that she couldn’t find it within herself to make a positive comment, at least about the fact that the people were demanding their voices be heard? Or did she not think that a situation in a small town of 3,000 mattered in the scheme of things? Who knows?
The protest has come and gone and I still ask “Where was Laura Ingraham?”
I say Power to the people anyway.