First off, I welcome your opposing view of Jesse Jackson. And I did give full credit to his legitimacy as a civil rights leader and someone who DID help lead us to where we are now. But I just think he really needs to let others take the spotlight when it is appropriate and it is something he has never done.

As to my feet on the ground, well I do not go quite as far back as the Civil Rights Movement. But I was a part of the anti-Apartheid movement in San Diego, I put my feet on the ground to raise money for Tom Bradley's campaign for Governor of California, marched in the protest against the "50 shots" here in NYC, helped quite extensively to defeat the rich white candidate trying to win on a split black vote the NY-13 Congressional seat (a Civil Rights voting district), and have done a great deal to bring both left and right wing racism to light. More broadly I have also done a great deal to help out groups working to elect native Americans to office, and I was helped Loretta Sanchez in California defeat Bob Dornan in right wing Orange County, something I will always be proud of. Gotta say I have put my feet and my money where my mouth is, so you speak from ignorance about what I have done. So lighten up.

That said, by all means present your view of Jesse Jackson. People are complex. I focused on an ugly side of Jackson that honestly he needs to keep a bit more hidden. You focus on a genuinely admirable side and that is indeed also quite important.