04-20-01

HAVING FAITH IN JESSE


The Shrub regime is scared of Jesse Jackson - with good reason. Anyone who works as a champion of civil rights is a direct threat to the regressive troglodytes in this country, and Rev. Jackson's track record in the area of civil rights gives him the honor (and I do mean honor) of being the Republicans' number one enemy.

In true fascist form, the regressives fight against Jesse with their favorite weapon - rumors, character attacks, propaganda and lies. They did the same thing to Martin Luther King, though of course now they pretend that they admire him (no doubt fifty years from now, the Republican party - if it still exists - will pretend that they view Jesse as a hero).

A recent article in the NY Post (by a so-called 'journalist' who has about as much journalistic integrity as one of my old socks) encourages the Bush mis-administration to continue its purported 'embargo' against any relations with Jesse Jackson; right-wing mouthpieces like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity continue to bash Jackson at every turn, and attempt drive a wedge into the African-American community by insisting that Jackson is no longer a 'leader' and it's time for other African-American leaders to come forward and take his place. Their reasoning? Jesse is 'corrupt' and 'haunted by scandals'.

The true reason, of course, is that Jackson has power, and he uses it to help the poor, the disenfranchised, and others who are suffering and will continue to suffer under the heavy hand of regressive politics. Jackson helped Al Gore win the election, making it necessary for the right-wingers to then steal the election, and they aren't likely to ever forgive him for it.

They are cowards, and worse, they are hypocritical liars, and I for one am standing up to say : "Enough".

They want to talk about scandal? They want to condemn public figures and relegate them to the sidelines because of sexual indiscretions? Fine. Let's get the ball rolling.

Out with Henry Hyde, who claims that his seven-year extra-marital affair was merely a 'youthful indiscretion' (he was 41 at the time). Out with Bob Barr, whose sexual indiscretions are a little too sordid to detail here. Out with Rudy Giuliani and his mistress. Out with Scott Stewart, the chairman of the College Republicans organization, who has sexually harassed women in the organization and been given the equivalent of a wink and a nod from the party. Out with that toe-sucking little toad Dick Morris. Out with all the other right-wingers whose sexual morals make an alley cat look like a candidate for canonization.

And Shrub's handlers need to come forward and state unequivocally that any Republican who's fathered an illegitimate child - Reverend Jackson's only proven "sin" to date - should leave the party. Say goodbye to Dan Burton and his bullet-proof vests. The regressives must publicly condemn Burton for fathering a child with a woman other than his wife. And they should hold Jesse Jackson up as an example of how Burton should have behaved - rather than ignoring the child completely and paying the mother to keep her mouth shut, Burton should take a page from Jesse's book and actually be a father to his kid. So should JC Watts - he fathered children by two different women when he was still in high school; married one, dumped the other. And since we're on the subject of the importance of fathers, let's not forget to condemn Bob Barr for refusing to pay child support and medical bills to the mothers of children from his previous two marriages - and add an extra condemnation for his hypocrisy in paying lip-service to the anti-abortion movement while quietly slipping his wife the money to pay for an abortion.

When the Republicans and their spokespeople are tired of condemning people for sexual indiscretions, they can move on to the subject of corruption. They can discuss what should be done about the fact that most of the civilians on the USS Greeneville (who were, according to Cmdr. Scott Waddle, at least partially to blame for the collision with the Ehime Maru) were big GOP donors and Bush supporters. They can then speculate about when, if ever, Shrub is going to pay the legal fees he owes from the recount battle...sure seems like he's trying to skip out on the bill to me, and I'll bet that clever fellow O'Reilly will get to the truth of the matter in no time - after all, he's interested in corruption wherever it occurs, as he's stated a number of times.

The media will have a lot of fun with the other instances of corruption within the Republican party - Alfonse D'Amato and George Pataki claim they didn't know anything about the actions of the Korean-American GOP fundraiser who's at the center of a federal investigation into illegal donations, but it certainly merits speculation, since they benefited or stood to benefit from the fellow's shenanigans.

We've heard a few squeaks from the media about Tom DeLay's "access for dollars" program, in which he promises small business owners meetings with top Bush officials as long as they grease the good old Republican machinery with cold hard cash, but this is such a great story that it needs at least as much attention as the alleged (and unproven) muddled state of Jesse Jackson's taxes.

But hey, don't stop there - after all, we should investigate and condemn ALL corruption, even if it happened a while back. Whoops, there's Bob Barr in the hot seat again...how about getting him to explain his refusal to disclose PAC donations in the past, or the fact that he received over fifty thousand dollars in illegal campaign contributions in 1996? If he needs a little time to work out his explanation, we can turn to others who just can't seem to get out of the hot seat -- Henry Hyde can explain his involvement in the S&L scandals; Dan Burton can try to defend the fact that he uses federal taxpayer money to give an annual salary to women who don't appear to have actual jobs (but we know what their jobs are, don't we?); JC Watts can give us the skinny about his past history of taking bribes in Oklahoma, defaulting on debts, refusing to pay employees and evading taxes; and Jesse Helms can give us the lowdown on his cushy little set-up with the Jesse Helms Center, which he uses to launder political contributions from foreign governments and tobacco companies.

But you know what? As much as I enjoy the thought of seeing right-wingers squirm when the tables are turned, I'm enough of a realist to know that it ain't gonna happen - not as long as our media is controlled by the right-wing corporations and Rove-ian propaganda machines.

As far as I'm concerned, Jesse Jackson has made only one mistake - a very human mistake, one which is made by people the world over. He was unfaithful to his wife, and while I absolutely do not condone such behavior, and am saddened that Jesse fell victim to temptation, I do not for a minute believe that it has diminished him as a leader. Indeed, my respect for him has grown because he did not hesitate for a minute to take full responsibility for his actions.

And as long as the trogolodytes continue to attack leaders and heroes like Reverend Jackson, while ignoring the true corruption and scandal which permeates every crack of the Republican party, I'm going to do something I rarely do. I'm going to have faith.

Now, faith is a tricky thing, and I've never been a big proponent of blind faith, which is why I'm not terribly religious. I'm a cold-hard-facts kind of girl, and I generally insist that I have all the evidence in front of me before I decide to place my trust in someone. When allegations arise against someone I admire, I give them due consideration before deciding whether or not they're justified. It's rare for me to automatically discount accusations of impropriety or illegality, yet that is precisely what I intend to do from this day forward with regard to Jesse Jackson.

You see, the sources simply can't be trusted. And if I take the accusations against Reverend Jackson seriously, then I am - in effect - placing faith in sources which I KNOW are biased and dishonest and hypocritical. And that'd be a pretty stupid thing for me to do, wouldn't it? Of course it would.

So here's my message to the right-wing fascist troglodytes -- go ahead and make accusations against Jesse; go ahead and spread rumors and innuendos; go ahead and insist that he's not fit to be a leader. I will give your comments the same consideration I give to others of your ilk -- telephone solicitors who promise me wealth beyond measure if I just send them fifty dollars, used car salesman who insist that a ten-year-old car really does have only 45,000 miles on it, and so on. You think Jesse Jackson shouldn't be a leader in the African-American community? The truth is that he should be a leader in all communities.

I hereby vow to have faith in Jesse Jackson. I will not believe the slander coming from the mouths of bigots and liars. I will not turn away from the man who has fought and continues to fight for all of us. Until we have true equality in this country, until no minorities are repressed and no person is disenfranchised, the champions of civil rights are sorely needed, and I will proudly support, defend, and respect them with every fiber of my being.

Jesse, I am behind you one hundred percent. I trust you. I am filled with admiration and love for you.

My faith in you remains and will remain unshaken.

Go get 'em.

~Rose

Opinions expressed in the daily rant are those of the author and may not reflect the opinion of every member of the fringefolk project. The articles posted here are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express permission. You do, however, have permission to post a link to this article and include the first few sentences as a lead-in, if you wish.