Columnist Carol Daniel
Dear Rev. Jackson,
I read the subtitles of your descriptive threats on several media outlets. They were hard to miss. I have but one request of you. Please just tell me you are jealous of the rock-star rise of Senator Barack Obama. If you tell me you were jealous, that would almost give me a greater sense of relief than to believe you honestly thought the microphones were off or, worse, that there could be any explanation for saying such things.
Now I know that having “Reverend” as a title doesn’t make you perfect. You are still just a man of flesh and, as such, I know that makes you a sinner like all the rest of us. But, c’mon! I would have thought you thought better of yourself and of Senator Obama.
Perhaps some observers are correct in that you feel you have not been given your just due. Maybe Senator Obama hasn’t mentioned your name enough as the previous African-American candidate for president who paved the way for today’s meteoric rise of the Illinois junior senator. Perhaps you feel slighted. I know that feeling well. And after I whined in my head, I had no choice but to get over it and move on.
Whether your comments helped Obama or not, they haven’t helped you. If you wanted a place in the history books, you already had it. But you’ve just added a sad footnote.
Aside from how you could shape your mouth to say such a thing, is what you actually said. It makes no sense, given the grim statistics facing fatherless black children, and leaves you without a leg of credibility to stand on!
You missed a golden opportunity to turn Obama’s call to action into a call of your own. He tells black fathers to take responsibility, then you tell the courts, the prisons, the banks, the policy wonks to remove barriers to making that a reality.
For instance, a woman can put any man’s name on a birth certificate and he has to prove her wrong. Does that need to change? Courts defer to mothers in custody and visitation. But if a man isn’t given his visitation rights, he has to go back to court and we are generally talking about men of little means.
How much does that cost and why aren’t their penalties for mothers who don’t live up to their end of the custody case? Why aren’t we impressing upon mothers the harm they are doing to their children by not allowing them to see their fathers? And I am not talking about abusive men here, so don’t write me about that.
Much progress has been made with child support, but the focus on marriage is an afterthought. Rev. Jackson, don’t let the naysayers allow you to back down from a conversation about purity, real love, promiscuity and the need for commitment and marriage in our community.
And remember when you contacted NASCAR to express your concern that there were no black drivers? I would love to see you contact studio executives, ad agencies, video producers and record companies and tell them you are sick and tired of the negative, violent, oversexed images too often portrayed of black men! Then go to the upcoming urban agenda meetings that mayors across the country are planning prior to the November election and let them know what you think black men need in order to fulfill Obama’s call to responsibility!
We rebuilt Japan. Surely we can rebuild our inner cities – and our public education system, without cannibalizing it in the name of choice!
And since you’re a man of the cloth, I’m sure you know the scripture “iron sharpens iron,” that men sharpen men. The sharpened iron is then intended to build the family, community, nation and to glorify God.
Perhaps that is the saddest part of this episode. A man is trying to hold other men accountable and, instead of helping him, you threaten to harm him. Maybe you took it personally, given your affair, the resulting child and the payoff. You, as iron, appear dull indeed, Rev. Jackson. But it’s never too late to be sharpened by another, like Barack Obama.