Rant #3,889: Not the Loving Kind

Sorry, I cannot mourn the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson like some people are doing.

He and Spike Lee are in the same boat as far as I am concerned, and neither of them are getting any praise from me.

Like Lee, Jackson was a well-known racist, anti-Semitic figure that doesn't deserve any praise or recognition from anyone.

He was the youngest member of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s staff, and when MLK was assassinated, Jackson supposedly rubbed the dead leader's blood on his own shirt, to try to show that he was there at the time of the murder, and that he tried to resuscitate his boss, and neither of these things were true.

He was an opportunist of the highest order, but he learned nothing from the slain civil rights leader.

That was proven when Jackson was at the height of his powers, and ran for president.

During an interview with a black reporter on his 1984 campaign, he made an off-the-cuff comment about Jews being "Hymies" and New York City being "Hymietown," remarks which he initially denied but later admitted to making, not knowing that the reporter would print what he said.

After admitting to saying what he did, not only did he not apologize right away, but he turned it all around, stating that it was part of a Jewish conspiracy to derail his campaign.

His campaign advisors later admitted that Jackson often called Jews "Hymies," and that he had just let his guard down when speaking to the reporter. He had also had a sort of up and down relationship with the Jewish community for decades, and this incident was his most glaring episode of anti-Semitic rhetoric.

After his campaign collapsed, he tried to walk back those comments, but once he said them, the damage was done, and it kind of devalued him as a civil rights activist, pretty much handing the baton to race-baiter the Rev. Al Sharpton Jr. and others.

Of course, much like what I spoke about yesterday, Jackson's guffaw will not be spoken about and will not be brought up by the media now that he is gone.

Funny, how for generations, slurs against Jews are not handled the same way as slurs against other ethnic groups, so once again, his anti-Semitism will be swept under the rug by the media, just like Lee's recent behavior has been.

We are talking about a 40-some-odd-year difference, but the situation continues to happen.

Why is that? 

Are slurs against Jews not as important, or as disgraceful, as slurs against other ethnic groups?

Jackson will be mourned as perhaps one of the preeminent civil rights leaders of the past more than half century, but he really cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Martin Luther King, who was his mentor.

King spoke highly of the Jewish community and Israel, knowing that a firm bond of the two could help the cause of civil rights.

Jackson, and later Sharpton, have seemingly forgotten what King believed in, and are two of the most polarizing religious/civil rights leaders--along with Louis Farrakhan--that I believe our country has ever seen.

So, while you hear one tribute after another for Jackson over the next couple of days, take into account that he is not being mourned by everybody--

And certainly not by me.

I was taught to not talk disparagingly about the dead, but unfortunately, I am going to have to break that rule here.

Jackson was a phony, nothing but a rabble rouser and an opportunist, and let me tell you, the world is better off without him.

Get out the violins ...

I mean exactly what I said.