The month of September has not been kind to the small town of Jena, La.

The racial tensions highlighted the ugly underside of America’s cultural and racial diversity and have given some of this nation’s biggest loudmouths yet another pulpit from which to preach.

The story of the Jena Six is a tragedy of proportion. Although it is true that the initial charges probably exceeded what was fair, the nationwide attention this episode has garnered is absurd.

Thomas Jefferson, in writing the credo of our great nation, stated clearly: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

In this nation, no one is above the law. No one, for any reason.

In this nation, the law applies equally to everyone: black and white, rich and poor, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim and atheist. This was the foundation of America – the idea Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and all the rest affixed their signatures and their lives to that July day in Philadelphia. If anyone doubts the pervasiveness of these ideals in practice, let them try to find a nation with more freedom, more equality and more diversity than our United States.

Assault is assault – whether the accused is black or white. Battery is battery – whether the defendant is black or white, and so on. Several questions therefore come to mind: If white students had assaulted a black student instead of the other way around, would the American public have ever heard of Jena? What if white celebrities had begun contributing to a fund for the injured student’s medical expenses?

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson certainly would not be pleading the case of the defendants, and it is doubtful the episode would have been more than a short footnote on the network news, if it made it out of the state at all.

In this culture of sensationalism and headlines, Sharpton and Jackson must rank as two of the best and most biased exaggerators in the country. Where there are flames of racial animosity to be fanned, you can be assured these two men will be found there. It is, at times, quite difficult to discern what part of these men’s rhetoric is an argument for the equality of blacks and what part of their rhetoric crosses the line into reverse racism.

Jena would have gotten past the events of this month if it had not been for involvement of extremists like Sharpton and Jackson.

The events that occurred at Jena High School were horrific. The perpetrators of the harassment that led up to the assault for which these boys were accused are as much at fault for what happened as anybody. The authorities, including the Jena school board, were, at best, out of their element in dealing with what was happening.

Nevertheless, small communities like Jena are known, and often stereotyped, for an innate ability to deal with their own demons.

The real tragedy in Jena is perhaps more subtle than the headlines and news reporters will allow. A town of just less than 3,000 people in rural Louisiana – not, perhaps, unlike many of the small county seat towns here in Iowa – has been assaulted, crushed and humiliated in a media circus it never asked for and never wanted.

A bit backward? Perhaps.

A touch behind the times? Maybe.

Able to deal with their own problems on their own terms? Definitely.

But Jena has been crushed. The cameras and the reporters will eventually leave, but the stigma is there now, thanks mostly to two men.

Yes, the root cause of this debacle lies with some intemperate racist somewhere. However, we have the likes of Sharpton and Jackson to thank for the disproportionate hype. Go home, Al Sharpton. Go home, Jesse Jackson. Take your cameras, your media and your reporters with you. Take your racial attitudes and your stereotypes and stop throwing bricks from your glass house. You’ve solved little and complicated much. We’re tired of the rhetoric, the grandstanding, the sensationalism and the accusations. It is time – let Jena heal.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.