Jesse Jackson speaks truth to action [View All]

http://www.tompaine.com/print/jesse_jacksons_formula.php

Jesse Jackson's Formula

-snip-

Editor's Note: This speech was delivered at the Take Back America Conference on Friday, June 4, 2004.

Beware the rich young ruler who becomes an evangelist. He is now conducting pre-emptive wars for God.

-snip-

In his four years in office, Bush has never met with civil rights leadership. Never met with the NAACP, who has met with every president since Warren Harding. He has never met with John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO. He has never met with NOW or NARAL. He has closed the door to the Oval Office along ideological lines, locking out those who disagree with his politics.

-snip-

In reality, their issues are America's issues – and they are key to a coalition for victory. For example, in South Carolina, trade policies, union policies, education policies and criminal justice policies come together. The population of South Carolina is 35 percent black, but the prison population is 80 percent black. 110,000 blacks are arrested there every year. That means 110,000 calls to lawyers, calls to bail bondsmen, court appearances. There are 32 state prisons in the state, but only one state college. There is an entire jail industry being supported by African Americans. Of more than 140 judges, only nine are people of color.

-snip-

Bush is wiping out the resources for reinvesting in America. We have already heard about the Halliburton no-bid contracts and overcharging for fuel in Iraq. Now we know that Arthur Andersen, the infamous accounting and consulting firm, has a $10 billion contract for border surveillance and identification, under the name Accenture, based in Bermuda. The combination of tax gifts and off-shore tax avoidance schemes for wealthy Americans, $200 billion for Iraq destruction and reconstruction with no-bid contracts and the subsequent record deficit is putting our future in jeopardy.
-snip-
-------------------------------------

choosing just the right 4 paragraphs for DU was impossible

read the whole article to get it all