by Carl Dix
Revolutionary Worker #1274, April 10, 2005, posted at rwor.org
"Antiabortion conservative Randall Terry emerged from a session with Jackson in tears, saying the former Democratic presidential candidate discussed Jesus Christ's resurrection with Terri Schiavo's parents before hitting the phones.
"'I just had one of the more profound moments in my life in that room,' said Terry, who has become a spokesman for the Schindler family and has long been known for confrontational tactics at abortion clinic protests. 'May God bless Jesse Jackson.' "
from the Boston Globe, March 30, 2005
Jesse Jackson swooped into Florida near the end of March to stand beside the parents of Terri Schiavo. He came because he said that keeping Terri alive was "one of the profound moral issues of our time." He also said this was a transcendent moment and an opportunity in which conservatives and liberals could find common ground.
And a voice said: HERE HE GOES AGAIN—JESSE JACKSON ON THE WRONG SIDE FOR HUMANITY—SERVING THE MASTER ONCE MORE!
And Jesse, I have to say that after this latest performance in Florida, the hours you would have to spend doing self-criticism for the crimes you have perpetrated on the masses just went into triple overtime!
And here is a newsflash: The people you are trying to find common ground with are none other than extreme right-wing fundamentalist forces who aim to do nothing less than impose a Dark Ages morality and world view on U.S.society. They didn't care about the medical facts of this case—that Terri Schiavo's brain was virtually liquid, or that she was incapable of thought or emotion and without hope of recovery. It didn't matter to them what Terri or her husband, Michael, wanted, or what most people in the country thought about this case. To them Terri Schiavo was just an opportunity to step up their drive to impose their brand of fundamentalist religion as the law of the land. One that they seized on big time.
There is no finding common ground with this.
Face it, Jesse, the only reason you were given the limelight in this case was to help disarm people to the reactionary thrust of the politics being advanced. Just like in the 1980s when you declared yourself a "general" in the system's war on drugs, which was really a war on the people.
Now your mission in this holy crusade seems to be to fly into the bible belt—which just also happens to be the lynching belt—and lull people to sleep about what the Christian fascists have in store for the people. And what morality is that? People deprived of scientific knowledge about how the world really is, people enslaved by ignorance and superstition, women abused by husbands and fathers who think they have a god-given right to dominate, women thinking that their value to society is to be making babies, more punishment, prisons and executions, more deaths from AIDS because of a cruel "abstinence-only" approach to sex, people blaming themselves for how the system forces them to live.
Jesse, to put it plainly, you and those Black preachers who are linking up with the CF's to spread a lot of poisonous nonsense against gay marriage and abortion are just scouting out the road to the death camps.
And I want to shout out to all the thinking people who are still expecting people like Jesse Jackson to represent them—everyone has to WAKE UP!
Where do our interests lie?
Not with the people who want to take science away from the masses.
And not with Jesse Jackson.