What is going on in this country?

This story, "Noose Targets Columbia Professor," falls under the category of "What the hell is wrong with people?" Thanks to Harrogate at The Rhetorical Situation and Anastasia for bringing this to my attention. I really want to craft a well articulated response to this, but in all honesty, I'm really getting sick of this sort of yellow-belly crap. Why exactly do Americans believe we have the right to go into other countries and tell people how to run their governments when we clearly are unable to teach our own children about basic human respect? Perhaps I should word that question another way. Has our government's belief that "America" has the right to dictate how other nations govern led our citizens not to value one another's basic human rights?

Jena Six

I want to know why the story of Jena Six isn't being broadcast on all the news networks. I'm somewhat ashamed that I haven't heard about it before. Thanks to kate at ak8 a cat a mission for posting a link to the story. The Group News Blog writes about it much better than I could. I've lived most of my life in the South, and I've witnessed some horrible examples of racism. I have, however, never seen anything like this. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised, and that is what really disappoints me. Why do our national leaders continue to ignorantly assume that race is no longer an issue in this country?