Jackson stresses the 'struggle is not over'; takes on Bush, Powell

Athens (GA) Banner-Herald ^ | 10.21.02 | Lee Shearer

[mhking]

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was the keynote speaker at the closing convocation celebrating the 110th anniversary of the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday evening.
R.C. Rique/Staff</mcc CREDIT> 

Jackson stresses the 'struggle is not over'
Civil Rights leader takes on Bush

By Lee Shearer
lshearer@onlineathens.com

   The Rev. Jesse Jackson didn't use the harsh words of Harry Belafonte to describe U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell when he spoke in Athens Sunday, but he told his audience to be clear on one thing about Powell.
   ''He's not on our team,'' Jackson told a packed house at Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which celebrated its 110th anniversary Sunday. ''If he wins, Trent Lott wins. We're not on that team. If he wins, we lose. If he wins, poor folks lose.''
   But Jackson's aside on Belafonte -- the singer last week called Powell the Bush administration's ''house slave'' -- was just a part of Jackson's criticism of the Bush administration, which he said is using an exaggerated threat from a country that might get nuclear weapons -- Iraq -- as an ''election trick'' to divert attention away from the county's mounting economic woes.
   ''Here we are today victimized by a stolen election that's turned into a mandate for war,'' said Jackson, reminding his audience that it was Al Gore, not Bush, who got more votes in the 2000 presidential election.

</mcc PHOTO>
 Jackson used the occasion to explain his take on the Bush administration to an audience of nearly 200 people who showed their support throughout the entire evening.</mcc CAPTION>
R.C. Rique/Staff</mcc CREDIT> 

   ''Bush is using a war to divert our attention from the economy and drive us by fear, and not lead us by hope,'' said Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
   In two years under Bush, a $3.5 billion federal budget surplus has turned into a $20 billion deficit; poverty rates have climbed and family income has gone down; people have lost trillions of dollars in value from their pension and 401-K plans; funding for Medicare, public education and Bush has yet to meet even once with the NAACP, he said.
    When Bush was of military service age, he ''was dodging war,'' but now that ''he's waging war -- with your children,'' Jackson said.
   Racism is alive and well in the United States, said Jackson, pointing to the latest criminal proceeding involving Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter.
   Caught with illegal drugs a third time, the president's niece got a 10-day jail term.
   

 Congregation members show their support for the Rev. Jesse Jackson while he spoke at the closing convocation celebrating the 110th anniversary of the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sunday evening.</mcc CAPTION>
R.C. Rique/Staff 

''She deserves love, compassion and treatment. But then your son and daughter deserve the same love, compassion and treatment,'' Jackson told his predominantly black audience, citing statistics showing while most people who are arrested are white, most who go to prison are black.
   But the struggle isn't about race -- it's about poverty, and about everyone, Jackson said.
   ''The Civil Rights struggle is not over, and it's for everybody. Most poor people are white, they're female, and they work every day,'' he said.
    But he also said many African-Americans have forgotten and don't appreciate the sacrifices made by people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who died in his effort to get civil rights for African Americans.
   One of those rights is the right to vote -- yet 600,000 African American Georgians are not registered, he said.
   ''Brother King was killed over the right to vote and you don't even register? And now we got the right to go to school and have to beg somebody to get off the TV? Involuntary slavery is illegal, but to volunteer is legal,'' he said.
   

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, October 21, 2002.

[mhking]

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[Rays_Dad]

I have finally figured it out - the black left only has one brain to share between them. So when a black person breaks away and starts to think for themselves they are and I quote the honorable and Godly Jesee "Shakedown" Jackson - "Not on our team."

I think I will take the rest of the day of in reward of this outstanding brain nugget.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

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[ladyinred]

Why did I read this? I should have known it would make me so angry! Why is this guy still lying about the stolen election? Why do Blacks still listen to him, especially in a Church of all things? Why does anyone report what this exposed as a liar, adulterer, hijacking, blackmailing phony minister says anywhere?

[rudypoot]

Jessah wouldn't know what to say without his daily DNC update email he gets every morning.

[hgro]

Jesse isn't a has ben, he is a hasn't been. He is a disgrace to the black and the human race. A liar, a tax cheat, a fornicator, an embezzler and a close friend of billy jeff.

[duckbutt]

It ticks me off to no end that there are two laws which apply to tax exempt churches. If politics is spoken from the pulpit of a black church that's ok; if the Christian Coalition send out voter report cards on how their candidates voted (without a hint of a recommendation on how to vote), then those churches and that organization has the possibility of getting their exemption yanked. How about the law applying equally across the board???

[rudypoot]

"How about the law applying equally across the board???"

Since when do laws apply to democrats?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Jackson stresses the 'struggle is not over'

Why? Was one of his female staffers struggling to get out of his lecherous grasp?

[aristeides]

That's just what I was thinking, how this was an in-your-face political misuse of a black church. The Congressional Black Caucus was totally opposed to the recently attempted repeal of the requirement that churches, to avoid losing their tax exemption, have to stay out of politics. John Lewis led the charge. Total hypocrites.

[goodnesswins]

"The struggle is not over..."

Yeah, the struggle to keep Blacks just where Jesse and friends want them...
ON THE ......Democratic P L A N T A T I O N

[oyez]

News for Jackson. The team is decreasing in numbers.

[Marathoner]

It ticks me off to no end that there are two laws which apply to tax exempt churches. If politics is spoken from the pulpit of a black church that's ok; if the Christian Coalition send out voter report cards on how their candidates voted (without a hint of a recommendation on how to vote), then those churches and that organization has the possibility of getting their exemption yanked. How about the law applying equally across the board???

Bingo. You beat me to posting the exact same thoughts.

[BunnySlippers]

*

[lsee]

THANK YOU!!! And if the churches of un-color spouted half the nonsense Jesse and his ilk spout from their pulpits, what an uproar there would be! Our conservative minister is afraid to open his mouth politically about anything for fear of the IRS...and Jesse and these congregations preach politics on the front pages of newspapers without fear.

[AppyPappy]

Translation: He needs more money for child support.

[SwinneySwitch]

"And now we got the right to go to school and have to beg somebody to get off the TV? Involuntary slavery is illegal, but to volunteer is legal,'' he said."

Who is he begging to get off the TV? Are blacks watching too much TV and not going to school?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

laws which apply to tax exempt churches

. . . simply tell you the cost in liberty of the social engineering involved in the charitable deduction.

That is why a flat tax without any deductions would be better for freedom than what we have (if perhaps not as good as the national sales tax).