Published: July 15, 2008 09:05 pm            

McDONALD: Jackson should’ve known better

“See, Barack been, um... talking down to black people on this faith based...I wanna cut his ----s off. Barack, he’s talking down to black people.”

— Rev. Jesse Jackson

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With language like that, you might consider revisiting “hymietown” (New York City) as you once referred to it for the occasional briss.

What an awful thing to say about the epitome of what Jesse espoused about an example of someone achieving their dreams. I believe Jesse once said “Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rather than pushed by our memories.”

Rev. Jackson, I truly believe that Mr. Obama living proof of the accomplishment of your rhetorical poetry of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. You actually made a similar comment about not only dads but parents missing in action by saying in a speech “Your children need your presence more than your presents.” Was that you talking down not only to blacks but to everyone?

I remember listening to your speeches. The power of the oratory multiplied by your cadence and catchy phrases, those speeches were inspiring and powerful. Your work with Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition was good work and elicited needed change. You were edgy and your catchy oratory forced people to remember the key points you were emphasizing.

I can forgive you your moment of indiscretion, but you ought to know better being in a TV studio and the possibility of a hot microphone. Maybe Mr. Obama struck a nerve too close for you and you recalled your own indiscretion of fathering a child with a former staffer. You did face your responsibility and pay child support. But maybe you felt as if you were being talked down to and not black people in general. Perhaps your moral slip still troubles you.

As you once said “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” Both Mr. Obama and Bill Cosby before him and you in previous statements questioned the missing fathers in the black community. However, Cosby gets vilified by the black community, Obama gets adored and you accuse Obama of being elitist.

Regardless of race, political affiliation or personal beliefs, we do need to confront the moral problems of our day. We as Americans should be united on that front and in your own words you stated it beautifully and poetically in the cadence of the pulpit when you said “Today’s students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude.”

While my decision about who to vote for in the upcoming presidential elections is still in reflection and investigation mode, I can say unequivocally that Mr. Obama has dreamed the dream and achieved the dream. He has reached the Promised Land that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about. He owes a debt to you for breaking the path in your own race for the White House. Mr. Obama, whose own father was missing in action, had the firm grounding of grandparents and his mother for guidance and inspiration.

I hope that your comment the other day was out of frustration and not out of jealousy. I hope it was out of fatigue and not malicious. This country is in need of leaders from all races and political parties to lift up young people and speak to them straight about life and the future.



Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu

        

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