A Brief Jena 6 Update -

I made the drive from Austin to Jena, Louisiana and attended a protest earlier today.(you can read more about the background at http://colorofchange.org/jena/index.html).


In the photo to the left -the families of the imprisoned youth speak out -many of their mothers and fathers are ex-military.

What strikes me as remarkable is the courage and resolve of the people I spoke with and at the same time, thinking that Dr. King Jr. gave his brilliant "I Have a Dream Speech" almost 44 years ago, yet here we still are.



The photo below is the march from the courthouse through the small town and back to the courthouse.



I was really glad to make the drive and be here, as much theoretical socio-economic stuff I do behind a keyboard when you have the opportunity to venture out and support people that are speaking truth to power it provides a deep well of motivation and inspiration.

Ready, set, Action -

After too long behind a keyboard trying to incrementally drive positive societal change, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. boom and echo through the back of my mind.


"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now the time has come to make real the promises of Democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood ..." (I Have a Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -August 28, 1963).

So today, right after a critical strategy call for alonovo.com (which holds the potential for badly needed development resources and a more robust method for more comprehensive social behavior data about corporations, I'm off to Jena, Louisiana to support the Jena 6.