HOYA Coverage of Jena Six Insufficient

TO THE EDITOR:

I was angry, but not surprised, to see the disparities between the coverage of the rally for the alcohol policy and the rally in support of the Jena Six, both of which took place Thursday night.

The alcohol rally made the front page, yet the NAACP’s eight-hour-long rally and candle-light vigil for the Jena Six, a group of young black males who are being unjustly tried in a case reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, was confined to the NEWS IN BRIEF section. While well-written, the article’s location and length were incredibly insufficient.

What does this say about Georgetown? Would we like readers and alumni around the world to see that our greatest passion is the alcohol policy? This is front page news, yet our NEWS IN BRIEF includes an event that made top headlines in news broadcasts across the country and motivated over 20,000 activists to travel thousands of miles to Jena, La., to rally in protest. If ABC-7 and NBC-4 local news realized the significance of our rally and broadcasted our events during primetime news, it is unacceptable that THE HOYA’s Jena Six story was so severely insufficient.

If THE HOYA seeks to remain true to the Jesuit principle of “women and men for others,” it must seriously realign its priorities. As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously stated in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The fact that over 100 students of diverse backgrounds came to the NAACP’s candle-light vigil shows that Georgetown students want a positive change and are willing to fight for justice. This passion for issues that matter should be reflected in THE HOYA and celebrated by the entire campus community.

Ellie Gunderson (COL ’10)GU NAACP President

Akite Daniel (NHS ’10)

Sept. 22, 2007