A whacked-out racist by any other name

Okay, that's name-calling, but in this case, the epithet fits.

I remember attending a Lutheran Youth Encounter in Kansas City when I was a hormonal teen, and the keynote speaker was a fiery Baptist minister who walked with Martin Luther King, Jr. Knowing little about Lutheran theology and even less about the Bible, I can't say I was overly impressed with what Jesse Jackson brought to that event outside of high-octane emotion.

Since that day some thirty years ago, Jesse Jackson has never missed an opportunity to tilt the national spotlight in his own direction. He has done little to assuage racism in our nation and has done much to foment it. He runs from coast to coast with his can of kerosene and stokes any spark, any smoldering ember into flaming race hostility. He'll even take his show across the oceans.

As he opened his mouth at the recent World Policy Forum (huh?) held in France (surprise!), he had his flamethrower set on "inferno." Amir Teheri of the Washington Post who was in attendance, quoted the reverend as saying,

America must "heal wounds" it has caused to other nations...

In light of Jay Nordlinger's quotes in my post, "A reason to smile," I find Mr. Jackson's sentiments, comical if they were tongue and cheek, but since they are not, I find them disturbing. The United States continues to do more for down-trodden, disaster-stricken, innocently-attacked nations than any three nations combined, I would venture to say. Where's Russian aide for tsunami victims? How about Saudi aide? What happens when Ike or Katrina strike, who's helping us? Oh, yeah, we can take care of ourselves AND everyone else.

More from Jackson. He turns his torch toward Israel.

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

Hmmm...so we are going to abandon the only nation in the Middle East with a strong, representative government, our only like-minded ally? Um, why? Zionists control American foreign policy? If such will be the case if Senator Obama is elected, voters would do well to consider such a move. Seems the Obama camp is wisely distancing itself from Mr. Rainbow Coalition.

And he never misses an opportunity to tie slavery in with the plight of Black America today. The horrors of slavery and the atrocities of denied civil rights are not the causes of the problem of black America today. At some point, you play the cards you are dealt. If you quit the game, don't blame anyone else for your plight. If you quit your spouse, if you father ten children by five different women, if drugs and hip-hop consume your free time, the only one to blame is the man in the mirror.

Will Obama's election close the chapter of black grievances linked to memories of slavery? The reverend takes a deep breath and waits a long time before responding.

"No, that chapter won't be closed," he says. "However, Obama's victory will be a huge step in the direction we have wanted America to take for decades."

So if I read this correctly, if Mr. Obama is not elected, we can expect much more incendiary rhetoric for Mr. Jackson in the weeks and months to come.

When will the black community stand-up and reject the ideas of such men as Jackson, Sharpton, and Wright? Since when is personal responsibility "uncle Tom?"

Let's pray that when Obama is elected, such ideas will fade like an oxygen-starved candle. I don't think that will be the case.

Cartoon by Glenn McCoy, April 2007