Jesse's Love Child
I think the term is "Smackdown."
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What would a Jesse Jackson appearance be without his "I am somebody" exhortation to the faithful?
The reverend did not disappoint yesterday as he preached in his trademark call-and-response style to a full house of God at Macedonia Baptist Church in the Hill District. But he also crammed history lessons, current events, the emptiness of praising God without addressing problems at hand and a call for U.S. intervention in worn-torn Liberia into his nearly hourlong sermon.
Jackson came to town for the National Urban League conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. Before his scheduled conference appearance, however, Jackson preached unpublicized sermons at Macedonia and at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in East Liberty.
To applause and amens, the founder of the Rainbow Coalition led the congregation: "Respect me. Protect me. Never negate me. ... My mind is a pearl. [Yeah, Jesse, something like that.] I can learn anything in the world."
His Macedonia Baptist sermon focused on educating black youths, in keeping with the theme of the 93rd annual conference, "The Black Family: Building on Its Resilience." In a news conference afterward, he discussed Liberia and the U.S. role there. Liberia, settled by black Americans, has a "friendship treaty" with the United States dating to 1863 and signed by Abraham Lincoln, Jackson said. During World War I, Americans fought side by side with Liberians. In the next world war, the West African nation served as a landing base for the United States and was punished for its alliance when Germany bombed it.
In addition to its strategic position for the United States, Liberia yielded resources of gold and cocoa and served as a voice of America in that part of the world. "Yet when [Liberia] was overthrown in 1980 [by rebel factions] we were through with our friend," Jackson said.
Given the unique, long-term relationship, the United States has a "moral and legal obligation" to intervene in Liberia, where warring factions have requested its presence, he said.
That situation contrasts with Iraq, where the United States waged war on the basis of claims that the government was developing weapons of mass destruction and supported al-Qaida terrorists. To date, neither has been uncovered, Jackson said.
"If you die for Europe or Iraq or Afghanistan, you die for honor. If you die for Africa, it is humiliation. We will not die for Africans. We will die for Europeans. There's something about that that's perverse," he said.
While he used the news conference and parts of the service to discuss international affairs, Jackson focused on the importance of teaching history to black youths in his sermon. Young people can't understand the inequities that exist today without a knowledge of slavery and segregation in this country, he said.
He referred to three "Independence Day" celebrations, asking the congregation which one it celebrates. He said July 4, 1776, commemorates the colonies' freedom from England, which blacks have no reason to celebrate. There's July 4, 1852, when black abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke in New York decrying slavery and noting that he was a fugitive himself. Jackson described that as a protest July 4. Then there was July 4, 1863, when African Americans were able to fight for their freedom in the Civil War.
"So we can celebrate July 4, 1863, because we fought for our freedom that day and God saw us through. You can't celebrate [President Thomas] Jefferson getting freed from England and you not getting freed from Jefferson," Jackson said to applause. "You can't celebrate Jefferson having all those babies by Sally Hemings and not giving them his name. You can't really celebrate a deadbeat dad," a reference to Jefferson's controversial [but unproven] relationship with his slave.
Turning his attention to the current state of the nation, Jackson deplored nationwide job losses, corporate abuses and the overwhelming number of young black men in jail compared with those in college. It is no joke, he said, there are more young black men in the state pen than there are in Penn State.
He also questioned why it is that possession of crack cocaine, used largely by African Americans, deserves a mandatory jail sentence while the powdered substance, popular among whites, merits only probation.
There is also something wrong with a picture in which 76 percent of urban arrests are white people but 55 percent of all those in jail are black. Why is it that blacks attend second-class schools but are imprisoned in first-class jails, he asked. "You as a black person are trapped by predatory exploitation. You pay more for cars. You pay more for houses. You pay more for insurance," Jackson said.
Blacks work harder for less and pay more for less. He advised it's something "our religion must address" and a cause for which African Americans must be willing to march and protest. Post-Gazette
I don't think this was a waste of time. Even if it was, black Americans need to hear from the President just like white Americans. Speeches aren't only given to supporters.
And maybe, just maybe, a few hearts and minds were changed.
Jesse's Love Child
