Jesse Jackson

Let me be up front. I have never been a fan of Jesse Jackson. I appreciated the movement he tried to create, but always was leery of the man himself. I was viewed with some suspicion by some of my white liberal friends because I didn't jump on the Jesse Jackson bandwagon, but the truth is he creeped me out.

The first chance I had to directly observe Jesse Jackson in action was when then bishop Desmond Tutu came to speak at UC San Diego where I was a student. This was back when Tutu had to be very careful what he said or he might join Mandela in prison. His speech was amazing, and had the main message that too often America put itself on the wrong side...and for once we should do the right thing, back the right horse.

Through the entire event, Jesse Jackson was there, often pushing himself to the forefront and hogging the spotlight. I found his presence irritated me, and this despite all the good things I had heard about him from fellow liberals. And it seemed to me, though I may have just been projecting, that Tutu himself seemed to look a bit askance at Jackson.

Years later I had the opportunity to hear Nelson Mandela, newly released from prison, speak to a full house at the LA Coliseum. The standing ovation he received moved him, and many of us, to tears.

I am so amused.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Thursday he's backing Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential bid, giving his support to a new generation of black politicians.

''He has my vote,'' the Rev. Jackson said.

My God, Hillary must be spitting nails. Hehe.

CBS News reports that the Rev. Jesse Jackson has endorsed Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

CHICAGO, March 29, 2007
Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are seen at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Awards Breakfast in Chicago on Jan. 15, 2007. (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Quote

"It is because people like Jesse ran that I have this opportunity to run for president today.”
Barack Obama, in a written statement

(AP) Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said Thursday he's backing Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential bid, giving his support to a new generation of black politicians.

“He has my vote,” the Rev. Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Jackson sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses in 1988. His son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, already has endorsed Obama.

Jackson represents a different era of black politician, battle-tested by the civil rights struggles of the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr. CBS NEWS

I almost never watch network TV anymore. There's only a couple of shows I watch on cable and that's it. So it came as a surprise my opportunity to watch ABC News: 'Out of Control: AIDS in Black America'

Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for over 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking%u2014- almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in black America.

I urge you to watch all 6 parts over at You Tube. I have included above part 5, "Failure to Lead". You will be disgusted by the Reverend Jakes. Who shocked me with his cluelessness was Jesse Jackson. He got owned by Terry Moran when he called him on his focus on AIDS in Africa but not in the United States.