I will grant you that Jesse Jackson is one of the most lavish, overbearing, self-promoting public figures you'll ever see/hear. But while Colin Powell has made a career of taking credit for other people's hard work (as I have been told by someone who worked with him), Jackson has gone into situations of racial conflict where nobody else was willing to intervene. Whether we like it or not, racism still exists and is too often ignored or dismisssed. Sadly, the powers-that-be only take charges of racism seriously when somebody makes a big scene. And nobody makes a bigger scene than Jackson. Naturally he's made some mistakes along the way (like the suicide that he kept claiming was a lynching) but that's to be expected. Nobody's perfect. Don't forget that Jackson also managed to free those U.S. soldiers a few years ago (forgive me but I've forgotten who the captor was). Maybe he enjoyed the publicity more than he should, but if you had been one of the hostage's family members, would you have really cared if Jackson was preening for the cameras? Finally, I wonder how sane any of us would be if the person we revered like a father was shot down in front of us. And what's funny is that many of the criticisms this board has made of Jackson was made about MLK. MLK was an alleged womanizer who had a penchant for nice suits (even one of his close advisors admitted this) and was accused of being a rabble-rouser. But the fact is, both of these men have performed way more public service than anyone on this board.
Is there any doubt that Jackson was able to free those soldiers so as to create a diplomatic embarassment to the US? He had nothing to offer the captors; he had not power whatsoever!
Again, if one of the hostages was a family member of yours, would you really give a crap??? He got them home - bottom line. And I don't think the U.S. took that big a hit in its diplomatic reputation. Tell you what - next time we have a hostage crisis, why don't you go to the captors and negotiate. I'm sure you'll be just as successful as Jackson.
It looks to me like finalsbound posted and ran. The running part was a smart move. Hogwash is putting his drivel nicely. For the record, Jesse Jackson works for poor people more so than solely African Americans (though obiously there is an overlap). His personal actions are disappointing (as was Clintons, Newts, Barrs and probably 3/4 of both houses if we only knew--thankfully we don't), but nonetheless I am glad Jackson is around.
Chill out subatomic; I'm just as glad as you are that hostages came home. I'm just pointing out that Jackson runs wherever he can stick his ugly mug in front of a camera on behalf of "victims." I doubt you or I or anyone on this BBS could have made headway. My point is that it's not that Jackson is so marvelous but that he is willing and available. In this instance he was acting "unofficially" and that he was allowed to succeed where other US government officials failed was a deliberate aspect of those events-- deliberately meant to embarass the US government by one of its enemies.
