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Jackson should give Jeremiah Wright some lessons
By STEVE PENNThe Kansas City Star
Questioning and challenging America’s policies while remaining patriotic and hopeful.
It’s a fine line that ministers, especially in black churches, walk every Sunday.
How does a black minister illuminate America’s most glaring flaws while not coming across as unpatriotic or disrespectful? While the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was stepping back into the spotlight last week to defend himself and the black church, another famous black minister was walking that fine line right here in Kansas City.
And few ministers in America take that walk better than the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was in town Friday for a program observing the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.
While Jackson remains provocative, he seemed like a minister mindful that many people would be watching his delicate balancing act. In one breath, he’d punctuate a patriotic theme, suggesting that there should be a moratorium on the foreclosure of homes owned by military personnel fighting in Iraq.
In the next breath, he was taking President Bush to task over his leadership or lack of leadership regarding the subprime lending controversy.
“Bush will bail out Bear Stearns but won’t bail out the homeowner,” Jackson said. “It doesn’t stand to reason. The homeowner doesn’t want a bailout. The homeowner wants restructuring, not repossession.
“Restructure loans. Don’t repossess homes. … America figured out after 1929 how to stop foreclosures on homes during the Depression. Roosevelt could see in ways that Bush could not.”
Jackson saved his sharpest but most humorous criticism for the war in Iraq, where he contends the United States picked the wrong fight.
Jackson used the Rev. Fuzzy Thompson and the Rev. Wallace Hartsfield, who were on hand, to illustrate his point.
“Fuzzy hits me,” Jackson said. “I hit Hartsfield. The Taliban hits us, then we hit Iraq. That’s like a cross-eyed archer. They look left and shoot right.”
Jackson also went through a long discourse on walls that have been put up against mankind throughout history but have come down. He noted the litany of civil rights accomplishments, from breaking the color barrier in baseball in the 1940s by Jackie Robinson to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Walls create fear,” Jackson said. “I used to be up at night wondering why it took so long for some of these barriers to come down. But some people profit from the barriers. They use the barriers to manipulate and control. Bridges, on the other hand, create hope and growth.”
Of all the walls that came down, one of the most significant was the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
“It’s our burden today to take our struggle to another level,” Jackson said. “We won in 1968 and we’re still winning. We’re not there yet, but we’re still winning. More of us are neighbors than ever before. More black kids are going to school than ever before.”
Jackson can lift up a crowd in one thought, then in the very next let reality set in.
“We’re better as a nation,” Jackson said. “You look at our youth, and they are living in dormitories together and playing ball together. But there are some ancient patterns that continue.”
Still, Jackson always leaves his audiences with a sense of hope.
“Let nothing or nobody break your spirit,” Jackson said before leaving.
Indeed, there’s a difference between pushing the envelope and incinerating it. For most of his career, Jackson has managed to hold America up to the light without ever scorching it.
It’s a skill Wright has yet to learn.