TORKELSON: Jesse Jackson polishes his apology
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 14, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Updated July 14, 2008 at 7:07 a.m.
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Photo by Judy DeHaas © The Rocky
The Rev. Jesse Jackson leads a group of Denver leaders in prayer in front of the Martin Luther King statue in City Park. From left, the Rev. Jim Ryan, his wife, Kristin Ryan, the Rev. Paul Burleson, his wife, Dallas Burleson, Jackson, Wellington Webb, and his wife, Wilma Webb.
He led a hymn. He shouted out an altar call. ("Give God a chance! Come on down!")
And given the week it was, the Rev. Jesse Jackson even practiced another round of repentance Sunday as he did a guest-preaching spot at Friendship Baptist Church in Denver.
As the world knows by now, last week the master of strategic controversy took a self-inflicted wound when, unaware of a live TV microphone, he complained that he wanted to perform a painful surgical procedure on Sen. Barack Obama for talking down to blacks.
In his first Denver speech on Saturday, a contrite Jackson called it "trash talk." He cleaned his apology up even more for Sunday church, where he was joined by Pastor Paul Burleson, former mayor Wellington Webb, former Denver first lady Wilma Webb, the Rev. Jim Ryan of the Colorado Council of Churches and a supportive crowd.
It's been "a week of pain and trauma," Jackson told the crowd. "I try to keep my tone and pace above that . . . but when you make an error, seek redemption and forgiveness and move on."
Move on, he did. At an impromptu news conference in the pastor's office, Jackson announced he was opening an Operation Rainbow Push office in Denver, one of 50 cities, to get involved in everything from presidential politics to the foreclosure crisis.
To the flock, he used the language of inspiration.
"What do we want?" he shouted, in a rising crescendo. "Faith and hope and change."
"Preach it!" somebody shouted.
With a frankness that rattles most IRS-spooked churches, Jackson easily promoted Obama. Each civil-rights victory has been "a big-bang moment," he said. Now, "we seek another big-bang moment - that's what Aug. 28 is going to be about (when Obama accepts his party's nomination for president.)
Jackson had each person pledge to register to vote and made them promise - to laughs - that if they didn't, "I hope I lose my job and miss the lottery!"
The crowd held a smattering of whites. Skip Weythman, a 48-year-old unemployed construction worker, drove from Thornton. "We love you, Jesse!" Weythman shouted out, explaining later, "I've wanted to see him since 1980. He's always represented the people's struggle."
Not quite the sentiment from Republicans Robert Corry and his wife, Jessica, who came because they were curious and also because she's directing Amendment 46, the movement to ban most affirmative action programs.
She mused that, for one thing, racial preferences hurt blacks by implying that they can't make it on their own; Jackson later countered that success stories, like the Obamas, prove it works.
Still later, the Webbs took Jackson on a tour of the throat-catching Martin Luther King monument in City Park. Jackson said he's seen plenty of King monuments, "but this is the most profound."
Jackson took more questions, too, even about "the incident."
OK, some are saying he's way too experienced in front of a TV camera not to know that the microphone was on.
Jackson looked a little hurt.
"Not at all," he said. His frustration was over the magnitude of the problem (addressing the needs of black families), not about Obama's message.
The other theory is that he got angry because he's . . . um, a little jealous of Obama's success?
"That's insane," Jackson said, reeling off a long list of support he's given Obama since the latter's fledgling politician days.
On the nostalgia front, I mentioned to Jackson I had interviewed him back in Minnesota when he was promoting an Operation Push program in the mid-1970s, when he had a huge afro and (not to let myself off the hook) I had longer hair too -
" - and I lost my hair!" Jackson finished, with a hoot of laughter.
Less hair, but still there - center stage.
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July 14, 2008
1:21 a.m.
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fastnloose writes:
Jackson is given way to much press and credit for representing the black community.If I were black, I would shutter every time this man opens his mouth.Hopefully more blacks will take a lead in denouncing this clown.
July 14, 2008
4:48 a.m.
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Domino writes:
Fox tricks Jackson into saying something that he would have preferred not to be said.
Even the religion writer must comment.
A top McCain campaign official calls us "a nation of whiners."
Where is the coverage about this latest atrocity?
May it be because the cool kids give John McCain and his campaign the benefit of the doubt because he is one of them.
July 14, 2008
5:57 a.m.
plotz writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
July 14, 2008
6:15 a.m.
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DD writes:
Jessie must be shaking in his boots at the prospect of a black man winning the Presidential seat. How can he then run around spouting the need for affirmative action? He'll be out of a job and no one will want to listen to his diatribe any more.
July 14, 2008
6:26 a.m.
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BMat writes:
Just b/c you're a multiple adulteror with a fake MLK accent who called New York Jews "Hymies" and threatened to assualt the genetalia of a presidential candidate doesn't mean you're not a good ole' fashioned Christian preacher right?
OK well maybe it does. Hypocrite.
July 14, 2008
6:32 a.m.
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BMat writes:
Didn't Jessie Jxn call for the entire Duke Lacrosse team to be arrested and incarcerated (even though they were exhonerated of any wrong doing)?
Yeah, he did. Maybe he and Al Sharpton should go iron each other's hair and leave the rest of us alone.
July 14, 2008
6:44 a.m.
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slowhand111666 writes:
man he has a great job....i guess hanging out with with drug dealing murderers and gangs in chicago when he was younger was his resume. i don't know a lot about mlk, but it is hard for me to understand how jesse was allowed in his camp....and to the guy who called the whining comment an "atrocity"....first it has been all over the news....second it wasn't mccain who said it. to compare this to anything the hate monger jesse jackson says shows your ignorance. i am sure if mlk was alive he would call for a jesse jackson clause in the civil rights amendment, he has made something that was intended to help minorities seem unsavory and tarnished
July 14, 2008
7:03 a.m.
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Domino writes:
It is so nice the Jesse Jackson stands in as a target for the racists.
July 14, 2008
7:17 a.m.
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denverinfidel writes:
.....And Domino comes out with an incredibly original argument and calls people "rascists". You have been reading the rev's playbook.
Jesse Jackson is a crook, plain and simple. Its nice to see he still has time to preach, in between shaking down corporations for his "charities" and knocking up young women at the office. Ahhh yes, praise jesus. If he was white he would just be another pan-handling shady preacher. But once again, the rules change according to skin tone. Its mind-boggling people actually still care about this buffoon.
July 14, 2008
7:20 a.m.
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truehope writes:
Why are black churches exempt from the IRS policy for 501 organizations, churches, which states, “must absolutely refrain from participating in the political campaigns of candidates for local, state or federal office.” http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4220.pdf. I find it a bit hypocritical that we have double standrerds.
July 14, 2008
7:49 a.m.
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Alive writes:
Domino, do you consider yourself a victim?
July 14, 2008
9:24 a.m.
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plotz writes:
Oh my...I have been censored. Hmmm lets see.
(1) Jesse has a big mouth
(2) Liberal clergy and other luminaries in the black community are pandering to Obama and that unity is nothing more than an illusion.
(3) My remark that "beef" wellingtons wife bears a remarkable resemblance to a character in the old TV show "The A Team" and that character also happens to be black? BTW, this is not my notion as well...as Kenney Be in Westword pointed that out some years ago in a comic strip.
(4) Jesse is jealous
(5) Hmm, no bad language, to the point, my opinion, nothing inciteful.
(6) No case on the part of the staff to remove my previous comment.
July 14, 2008
9:29 a.m.
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Blondo writes:
If you do not agree with him fully, in truth, it is the Reverend who speaks "down" to people--regardless of race.
July 14, 2008
10:38 a.m.
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mtnsrfer writes:
You can't polish a turd, Jesse.
July 14, 2008
10:52 a.m.
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truth22 writes:
Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton speak for me as a Black man or anyone else that is Black that I know. He (Jesse) has outlived his usefullness and is now a bitter, envious of Barack, adulterous, foul mouthed Preacher.
I think that we all know deep down that had that been a White guy that said that he wanted to cut his (Barack's) ___ off, he would have been "tarred and feathered" by now.
July 14, 2008
11:17 a.m.
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T1anda writes:
Spot on BMat!! Funny also!!!
July 14, 2008
11:44 a.m.
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Davek80501 writes:
Political correctness is based on the principle that it's entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
July 14, 2008
1:05 p.m.
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SteveT8 writes:
Obviously Jeremiah Wright is a lot smarter than Jesse Jackson. For twenty years Obama was part of a church that preached a racially devisive and anti-American agenda, and one can assume Obama accepted that. But when he ran for the presidency he had to pretend to reject it, so he publicly denounced Wright. Wright understood that and said, "He's and politician and I'm a pastor." Obviously there were no hard feelings because Wright understood where Obama's heart was. But when Jesse heard Obama reaching out to the centrists, he actually believed Obama's words and got angry. He didn't realize that Obama was "just being a politician" and would revert to his old self as soon as elected. Jesse should have been smarter and just relaxed. He could have gotten himself a nice presidential appointment.
July 14, 2008
1:20 p.m.
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fastnloose writes:
When is the black community going to wise up,and not let Jackson and Sharpton stand in their pulpits? These are store bought preachers,who only want to share their own idea of religion.I challenge black americans to stand up and put these two idiots out to pasture.
July 14, 2008
1:32 p.m.
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truth22 writes:
FastN, what your are talking about is not neccesary, you are giving those guys way too much credit. They do not have the power or pull to change anything in OUR day to day lives.
I challenge you to not be so imtimidated and naive.
Btw, what is the "Black Community?" Do you honestly think that ALL black people just sit around and wait for those two guys to tell us what to do and think?! I don't know anyone that does that.
I am appalled at your shallowness.
: (...
July 14, 2008
2:26 p.m.
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bronxs136 writes:
There is a huge difference in being dark skinned and light skinned in the black community. I for one found this out when I meet my x-wife's sister in Huntsville Alabama. The first words out of her mouth were not hello or nice to meet you but "What are you". There has and always will be a racial division in the black community based on this. Henceforth Jackson and Obama. Jessie is and always will be jealous of Obama. He in alot of ways is like MLK and Jackson isn't. Jessie has never been able to move people, communities, or a nation. The American people have figured this out about him along time ago that he is always about self and doesn't have the best interest of anyone besides his own.
Jessie like Al Sharpton are both shallow and hollow men that claim they are looking out for what is best for there people. I for one being a prowd black man have no use for either one of them. Al is running from the IRS (a crook) and Jessie is a hypocrite (Infidelity). Jessie gets angry with Obama when he speaks about a number of issues that not only effect all races but inparticular to blacks. Jessie feels that is his place and no one elses. I've said this for more then 30 years. If MLK was here he'd be saidly disappointed in both Jessie and Al. His vision has yet to be meet and it probably won't be meet until neither of these two individials are alive. Jessie don't apologize for the comments you made your just sorry that you got caught. Its amazing how any of us exist in this world with this kind of garbage going on.
July 14, 2008
2:36 p.m.
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truth22 writes:
How can there be a racial division when they are the SAME race? I agree that there is some animosity (sp?) between light and dark skinned Blacks in some instances but you had to go all the way to Alabama to find that out? Besides, what does that have to do with this thread anyway?
July 14, 2008
4:55 p.m.
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fastnloose writes:
Truth22,you said I am the one who is shallow and naive.And yet light or dark skin people have the freedom to look down on one another and you don't see that as a "form" of racism.I know this is not totally on topic here,But I find your logic interesting and just had to ask.