Jesse Jackson speaks truth to action

[donsu]

http://www.tompaine.com/print/jesse_jacksons_formula.php

Jesse Jackson's Formula

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Editor's Note: This speech was delivered at the Take Back America Conference on Friday, June 4, 2004.

Beware the rich young ruler who becomes an evangelist. He is now conducting pre-emptive wars for God.

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In his four years in office, Bush has never met with civil rights leadership. Never met with the NAACP, who has met with every president since Warren Harding. He has never met with John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO. He has never met with NOW or NARAL. He has closed the door to the Oval Office along ideological lines, locking out those who disagree with his politics.

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In reality, their issues are America's issues – and they are key to a coalition for victory. For example, in South Carolina, trade policies, union policies, education policies and criminal justice policies come together. The population of South Carolina is 35 percent black, but the prison population is 80 percent black. 110,000 blacks are arrested there every year. That means 110,000 calls to lawyers, calls to bail bondsmen, court appearances. There are 32 state prisons in the state, but only one state college. There is an entire jail industry being supported by African Americans. Of more than 140 judges, only nine are people of color.

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Bush is wiping out the resources for reinvesting in America. We have already heard about the Halliburton no-bid contracts and overcharging for fuel in Iraq. Now we know that Arthur Andersen, the infamous accounting and consulting firm, has a $10 billion contract for border surveillance and identification, under the name Accenture, based in Bermuda. The combination of tax gifts and off-shore tax avoidance schemes for wealthy Americans, $200 billion for Iraq destruction and reconstruction with no-bid contracts and the subsequent record deficit is putting our future in jeopardy.
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choosing just the right 4 paragraphs for DU was impossible

read the whole article to get it all

[H2O Man]

1. Great!

The Reverend is a powerful man! Thanks for the post!

[Cheswick2.0]

2. I saw him give this speech

He had me in tears and the audience on it's feet more than once. I get so disgusted when democrats dis him because they don't have the guts to stick up for one of their own.

Oh...and he is a very tall imposing figure in person. I had the pleasure of shaking his hand and thanking him afterwards.
I also got some great pictures which I have not yet developed.

[goclark]

3. Marvelous Post !

Jesse put out a clear vision of this sorry administration.
People try to dismiss him because they know that he speaks words that they don't want to hear.

Thanks for sharing!

[Cheswick2.0]

4. here was the part that really seemed to touch him

Next week—June 6 to 9—we go to Appalachia. Mine workers, chemical workers, steel workers, AFSCME, AFGE and electrical workers are going to the hills.

Starting in Pittsburgh, to western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, southern Kentucky, eastern Ohio—we will again raise the issues of the working poor. Coal miners die of "black lung." Children riding two and a half hours each way to school—and no one is discussing vouchers or charter schools for these children! Plants closing and jobs leaving.

Why Appalachia? It is a region of abounding poverty and patriotic working poor people. We want to take away the race card from the right wing. To whiten the face of poverty. To deracialize the debate about rebuilding America.

When John Kennedy campaigned in Harlem, he held up a black baby—but he was dismissed. But Bobby Kennedy, holding up a white baby in Appalachia, poor, hungry, bloated stomach—that whitened the face of poverty. That little white baby drove the public agenda. Most poor people are not black or brown—they're white, female, and young—two-thirds are children. The nation had to face the white face of poverty.

(he must have talked off the cuff here, because he went on to talk about poor single mothers cleaning hotels they would never be able to stay in)

We will challenge whites to choose economic common ground over racial fear and cultural wedges. We will challenge blacks to choose hope over despair.

We must break the policies and dwarf visions that will not work.

[Ishoutandscream]

5. Isn't it great to have a compassionate conservative in the White House?

nt