The following story is from the UK Independent. They are saying that Jesse Jackson is ending his days as an activist.
Here is a quote from the Independent article:
"Mr Jackson's decision to end his activist days came just before he was to lead one of the main Inauguration Day protests against the results of the United States presidential election."
Jackson has been the #1 agitator who has been fanning the flames of racism in this country.
His withdrawal from the public scene -- at this time -- sounds like a set up to me.
I will bet that someone had a little talk with the Reverend Jackson. I think he knows that his IRS "deferrment" will no longer exist under President Bush. In other words, he realizes that for the first time, he may have to open up his books and tell people what he has done with all the money that people give him -- THAT HE DOESN'T PAY TAXES ON -- because he declares that the money comes through a "church".
I would also hope that the organization that Jackson heads will ask themselves where the money came from that Jackson paid off his girlfriend with.
Did he take that money out of "CHURCH" funds? If so, this is stealing. Will they charge Jackson with stealing?
That Jackson is a hypocrite has been known to most of us for quite some time, but now the members of his own organization are seeing that their emperor has NO CLOTHES!
When his girlfriend was pregnant with his baby, he took her to the White House and the two of them posed with the President for pictures.
As Jackson counseled President Clinton on "the bad thing" he did with Monica Lewinsky, Jackson's girlfriend was pregnant!
If this hypocracy doesn't wake up Jackson's followers, what will?
I think Jackson was told point blank -- by someone powerful enough to carry through on whatever threat they used -- to BUTT OUT of public life -- for his health! In other words, I think he saw the handwriting on the wall that if he didn't choose to duck and hide, he would quickly join his hero Martin Luther King.
Jackson was being interviewed by Tim Russert about a month ago. A light bulb exploded. It sounded just like a gun shot. A look of horror and fear ripped across his face as Jackson ducked for cover.
Russert quickly said, "It was just a lightbulb."
Jackson quickly recovered his composure, but that look of stark fear let me know that Jackson knows he has reason to fear, and I think it is his FEAR that is driving him into ending his days as the black agitator.
Without Jackson throwing gasoline on the smouldering black rage, who will be there to fan the fires.
Al Sharpton has more lawsuits and money problems that Carter has pills (or peanuts... depending on which Carter you are thinking about)
I expect the new leaders of the black community will be Colin Powell, Condeleeza Rice, and the Congressman from Oklahoma whose name I can't remember right now.
If the black community, who turned out 90% of their people, still cannot get their man elected... then it has to become obvious that they should no longer put all their eggs in one basket. If that basket is dropped all their eggs are broken.
If they split their people between the two parties, they they will have a chance of getting their people elected and appointed at a much greater rate than if they only embrace one party.
Whoever took Jesse out and had a little chat with him deserves a medal. Whoever you are, next time you're in California, I'll buy you a drink... do you like your carrot juice with or without bee pollen?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2001-01/jesse190101.shtml
A guilty secret that drove Jesse Jackson into hiding
Leading civil rights campaigner of his generation withdraws from public life after admitting he fathered an illegitimate child
By Mary Dejevsky in Washington
19 January 2001
The Rev Jesse Jackson has delivered a bombshell to America's black civil rights movement by withdrawing from public life after admitting that he fathered an illegitimate child. Mr Jackson's decision to end his activist days came just before he was to lead one of the main Inauguration Day protests against the results of the United States presidential election.
Accusations of "hypocrisy" and "double standards" engulfed the civil rights leader in the wake of his admission, which was prompted by revelations due to be published in the supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer. Whether or not he returns to public life – he was in hiding yesterday – the exposé has effectively decapitated the resurgent black civil rights movement, which is riding a wave of popular anger over claims that black voters were disenfranchised because of voting disparities in Florida.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Mr Jackson said: "I am father to a daughter who was born outside of my marriage. As her mother does, I love this child very much and have assumed responsibility for her emotional and financial support since she was born." He went on: "This is no time for evasions, denials or alibis. I fully accept responsibility and I am truly sorry for my actions."
Mr Jackson, who has been married to his wife for 38 years, did not name the woman or the child, as he said he wanted to protect their privacy.
The Enquirer, however, named the woman as Karin Stanford, a former university lecturer, who worked at the time for Mr Jackson's campaigning organisation, the Rainbow Coalition. It told how Mr Jackson had courted her, even as he served as the spiritual counsellor to President Bill Clinton as his affair with Monica Lewinsky became public.
Following up the Enquirer's revelations, the New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch-owned daily tabloid, contacted Ms Stanford in California, where she now lives with her daughter. She declined to comment on her affair with Mr Jackson, beyond saying: "Jesse and I still have a very warm and close relationship."
According to the Enquirer, Ms Stanford receives $10,000 (about £6,800) a month from Mr Jackson, and received a one-off $40,000 payment for "moving expenses" when she took maternity leave from his Washington campaign office and returned to her home in California. The size of the payments, in particular the one for "moving" expenses, were the subject of criticism from former Jackson allies yesterday, who left little doubt that in their mind the payments were intended as "hush money".
The Enquirer reported that when Mr Jackson's wife, Jackie, learned of the relationship, she turned up at his Washington offices. The report went on: "She screamed at Karin that she'd raised Jesse's children and had been at his side through really tough times... she accused Karin of getting pregnant on purpose."
According to the Enquirer, however, Mr Jackson was not prepared to acknowledge that the child was his and it took a DNA test before he accepted paternity. The financial arrangement that was agreed reportedly included a written undertaking by Ms Stanford not to divulge the identity of the baby's father.
Mr Jackson is now estranged from his wife and five children, including his son Jesse Jnr, who is a US Congressman.
The fall-out from the scandal on the black civil rights movement, which has suffered from lacklustre leadership for many years, can hardly be overestimated. While Mr Jackson's stock even among loyalists had been falling, his commitment to black rights and his credentials as a campaigner were undisputed. Without him, the movement has no leadership and no focal point.
His rhetorical effectiveness was on full display at the Democratic Party convention last summer and he recouped much of his flagging credibility during the protests that followed the disputed presidential election in Florida. The special difficulties that black voters encountered in getting to the polls, casting their votes and then ensuring that their votes were counted was a cause that reached beyond America's blacks.
While the timing of the National Enquirer's exposé may be coincidental, there is one big beneficiary: the incoming Republican administration of George Bush. The revelations discredit Mr Jackson at a time when he presented its greatest danger: leading the protest march in the Florida capital that would challenge the legitimacy of Mr Bush's election.
The leadership of America's blacks – who voted overwhelmingly for Vice-President Al Gore – is now up for grabs. Mr Jackson walked the fine line between extreme activism and respectability and managed, just, to keep the black civil rights movement together.
Mr Bush has repeatedly stressed that while he is disappointed only to have received 9 per cent of black votes, the black groups opposing him do not represent all blacks. His appointment of three black people to his Cabinet – none of them with a civil rights record – has received a mixed response from many blacks.
The disgrace of Mr Jackson also benefits Mr Bush in another way. It resuscitates all the memories of sleaze and sex in the Clinton years, just as Mr Clinton prepares to leave office with the highest popularity ratings of any President since such surveys began, and casts Mr Bush's claim to the moral high ground into sharper relief.
In the last months of his term, Mr Clinton had almost succeeded in banishing the spectre of the impeachment scandal that so haunted his second four years, and in a series of farewell visits around the country which ended with a nostalgia trip to his home state of Arkansas this week, he never once mentioned it. The only allusion to his affair with Monica Lewinsky and its aftermath was an allusion by one public official who thanked him "for showing grace under pressure".
As the churchman whom Mr Clinton called upon at the lowest point of his presidency – to counsel and pray with his wife and daughter after he had admitted the "inappropriate" relationship with Ms Lewinsky – Mr Jackson was a frequent guest at the White House at the very time when his own extra-marital relationship was flourishing. He even took Ms Stanford with him to the White House on at least one occasion.
Mr Jackson appealed to the American public to forgive Mr Clinton, saying: "The nation must take the test: If there are any among us who have not known the trials and tribulations and temptations, then throw a rock... At some point we have to forgive, redeem and move on." That was apparently just days before he learned Ms Stanford was pregnant
