Sunday, December 30, 2018
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
The Prince of Peace, born an ‘at-risk baby,’ summons our better angels
Hello readers , a little late with this post , it's a true fact , the
message is very powerful . Hope you had a great Christmas and Have a fabulous New Year .
Shadow / Witchy
Buildings and churches surround the Church of the Nativity, revered as the site of Jesus Christ's birth, on Dec, 16 in Bethlehem. | AFP Photo / Thomas Coe
By Jesse Jackson 12/24/2018
On this Tuesday, hundreds of millions of people will celebrate Christmas across the country and around the world. For many, the holiday is a joyous time: Families gather, music in the air, light-draped trees and lampposts; presents are exchanged; blessings are shared.
But Christmas can also be a hard time for the lonely, the poor and the imprisoned. Each year at this time, I use this column to recall the real meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is literally the mass for Christ, marking the birth of Jesus. He was born under occupation. Joseph and Mary were ordered to go far from home to register with authorities. The innkeeper told Joseph there was no room at the inn. Jesus was born in a stable, lying in a manger, an “at-risk baby.” He was the son of a carpenter.
He was born at a time of great misery and turmoil. Prophets predicted that a new Messiah was coming — a King of Kings — one who would rout the occupiers and free the people. Many expected and hoped for a mighty warrior — like the superheroes of today’s movies — who would mobilize an army to attack Rome’s occupying legions. Fearing the prophecy, the Roman King Herod ordered the “massacre of the innocents,” the slaughter of all boys age two and under in Bethlehem and the nearby region.
Jesus confounded both Herod’s fears and the peoples’ hopes. He raised no army. He was a man of peace, not of war. He gathered disciples, not soldiers. He began his ministry by quoting Isaiah 62:1: “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
We will be judged, he taught us, by how we treat “the least of these,” by how we treat the stranger on the Jericho Road. He called us on to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, to offer aid to the refugee.
It’s an extraordinary story. Jesus was a liberator, but by his words, not by his sword. He converted rather than conquered. He accumulated no worldly wealth. He threw the moneylenders from the temple. During his ministry, he owned no home, no land and had no regular paycheck. His time with us was too brief, and he was crucified for his ministry.
And yet, he succeeded beyond all expectation to transform the world. The Prince of Peace, he taught us that peace is not the absence of violence; it is the presence of justice and righteousness.
These days, the mass for Christ has become a holiday, more secular than sacred. It is a time of sales and discounts, of shopping and Santa. In the midst of this, we should stop a moment and take stock of where we are. The record surely is mixed.
There is good news: Unemployment is down, poverty is down, incomes have slowly begun to rise. We continue to lock up more people than any nation in the world, but our generally dysfunctional Congress just passed a sensible reform that will reduce the number locked up for non-violent offenses or for inability to pay a fine.
Mostly, however, we are astray. The United States wastes lives and literally trillions in wars without end and without apparent purpose, yet when the president abruptly calls for withdrawing some of the troops, he gets criticized from all sides.
Inequality is at record extremes, yet Congress passed a tax cut that went overwhelmingly into the pockets of the already rich. Millions still struggle in this rich country with getting adequate food to eat, yet the administration is intent on cutting support for food stamps that allow the working poor to feed their families.
On our borders, the administration is tearing babies away from their mothers, and keeping so many locked up that we have no facilities to house them. Health care remains unaffordable for too many, yet a federal judge recently threatened the health care of millions by declaring the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.
Jesus was not a partisan, but his birth was immensely political, both in the expectations of the people and the fears of the occupiers. Instead of turning us on one another, he called us to our highest selves. We should not let the deeper meaning of Christmas be lost in the wrappings.
In Chicago, I will go — as I do every year — to visit prisoners. This year, however, many of the city’s ministers are joining together to raise the funds to liberate those who are locked up simply because they cannot make bail. I urge ministers across the country to take this initiative to their towns, visit the local jails, find out how many non-violent offenders are in jail simply because they cannot make bail and work to liberate as many of them as possible.
That surely will express the real meaning of the Christmas story.
Jesus demonstrated the overwhelming power of faith, hope and charity, the importance of love. He showed that people of conscience can make a difference, even against the most powerful oppressor. He demonstrated the strength of summoning our better angels, rather than rousing our fears or feeding our divisions.
This Christmas, this surely is a message to remember. Merry Christmas, everybody.
message is very powerful . Hope you had a great Christmas and Have a fabulous New Year .
Shadow / Witchy
By Jesse Jackson 12/24/2018
On this Tuesday, hundreds of millions of people will celebrate Christmas across the country and around the world. For many, the holiday is a joyous time: Families gather, music in the air, light-draped trees and lampposts; presents are exchanged; blessings are shared.
But Christmas can also be a hard time for the lonely, the poor and the imprisoned. Each year at this time, I use this column to recall the real meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is literally the mass for Christ, marking the birth of Jesus. He was born under occupation. Joseph and Mary were ordered to go far from home to register with authorities. The innkeeper told Joseph there was no room at the inn. Jesus was born in a stable, lying in a manger, an “at-risk baby.” He was the son of a carpenter.
He was born at a time of great misery and turmoil. Prophets predicted that a new Messiah was coming — a King of Kings — one who would rout the occupiers and free the people. Many expected and hoped for a mighty warrior — like the superheroes of today’s movies — who would mobilize an army to attack Rome’s occupying legions. Fearing the prophecy, the Roman King Herod ordered the “massacre of the innocents,” the slaughter of all boys age two and under in Bethlehem and the nearby region.
Jesus confounded both Herod’s fears and the peoples’ hopes. He raised no army. He was a man of peace, not of war. He gathered disciples, not soldiers. He began his ministry by quoting Isaiah 62:1: “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
We will be judged, he taught us, by how we treat “the least of these,” by how we treat the stranger on the Jericho Road. He called us on to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, to offer aid to the refugee.
It’s an extraordinary story. Jesus was a liberator, but by his words, not by his sword. He converted rather than conquered. He accumulated no worldly wealth. He threw the moneylenders from the temple. During his ministry, he owned no home, no land and had no regular paycheck. His time with us was too brief, and he was crucified for his ministry.
And yet, he succeeded beyond all expectation to transform the world. The Prince of Peace, he taught us that peace is not the absence of violence; it is the presence of justice and righteousness.
These days, the mass for Christ has become a holiday, more secular than sacred. It is a time of sales and discounts, of shopping and Santa. In the midst of this, we should stop a moment and take stock of where we are. The record surely is mixed.
There is good news: Unemployment is down, poverty is down, incomes have slowly begun to rise. We continue to lock up more people than any nation in the world, but our generally dysfunctional Congress just passed a sensible reform that will reduce the number locked up for non-violent offenses or for inability to pay a fine.
Mostly, however, we are astray. The United States wastes lives and literally trillions in wars without end and without apparent purpose, yet when the president abruptly calls for withdrawing some of the troops, he gets criticized from all sides.
Inequality is at record extremes, yet Congress passed a tax cut that went overwhelmingly into the pockets of the already rich. Millions still struggle in this rich country with getting adequate food to eat, yet the administration is intent on cutting support for food stamps that allow the working poor to feed their families.
On our borders, the administration is tearing babies away from their mothers, and keeping so many locked up that we have no facilities to house them. Health care remains unaffordable for too many, yet a federal judge recently threatened the health care of millions by declaring the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.
Jesus was not a partisan, but his birth was immensely political, both in the expectations of the people and the fears of the occupiers. Instead of turning us on one another, he called us to our highest selves. We should not let the deeper meaning of Christmas be lost in the wrappings.
In Chicago, I will go — as I do every year — to visit prisoners. This year, however, many of the city’s ministers are joining together to raise the funds to liberate those who are locked up simply because they cannot make bail. I urge ministers across the country to take this initiative to their towns, visit the local jails, find out how many non-violent offenders are in jail simply because they cannot make bail and work to liberate as many of them as possible.
That surely will express the real meaning of the Christmas story.
Jesus demonstrated the overwhelming power of faith, hope and charity, the importance of love. He showed that people of conscience can make a difference, even against the most powerful oppressor. He demonstrated the strength of summoning our better angels, rather than rousing our fears or feeding our divisions.
This Christmas, this surely is a message to remember. Merry Christmas, everybody.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Donald Trump’s border wall demand is dressed up with more lies about immigrants
By Jesse Jackson 12/17/2018
“Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other … I will shut down the government,” said President Trump to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, referring to his demand for $5 billion to build his border wall.
If Trump insists, a good portion of the government will be shut down on Friday over his wall.
Trump festooned his demand with his customary lies, claiming that much of the wall has already been built (it hasn’t), that immigrants are spreading disease (they aren’t), that border agents recently detained “10 terrorists in a short period of time” (they didn’t). In reality, illegal immigration has been declining, not rising.
This isn’t a crisis; it’s a political ploy designed to fan fear and division.
OPINION
The Bible teaches us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” We will be judged by how we treat the least of these. In Luke, chapter 10, Jesus tells the story of the stranger on the Jericho Road, who was robbed, stripped and beaten by a band of thieves. He is ignored by a priest and a religious official. He is saved by a Samaritan — a people who were widely despised at the time — who binds his wounds, takes him to an inn and pays his fare. “Go and do likewise,” Jesus instructs.
In contrast, Trump slanders the strangers. His administration has ripped babies from their parents, shackled pregnant women, locked up thousands indefinitely. He has constricted legal immigration, even as employers seek new workers as the baby boomers age and retire. And now he threatens to shut down a good part of our own government unless he can waste billions on the wall that Mexico won’t pay for.
In the midterm elections, Trump, worried about mobilizing his base, descended into hysteria, threatening to revoke the citizenship of those born here — a direct violation of the Constitution — rousing fears about a supposed invading army of migrants, eventually dispatching 7,000 troops to the border, an insult to our military and to our border patrols.
He succeeded in raising the importance of the issue, but he lost the argument. Democrats swept to a majority in the House. Polls showed most Americans still believe that immigrants benefit this nation, as opposed to costing it. The percentage of Americans supporting lower levels of immigration has fallen from a high of nearly two-thirds in the mid-1990s to an all-time low of less than 30 percent in June.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who immigrated from India at 16 and is the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives and one of 12 naturalized citizens, notes that a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill exists — one that once got 68 votes in the U.S. Senate.
It paid for more border security, while providing a clear road map to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented, including the Dreamers, and fixed many of the problems of our system: outdated family visa caps, cruel immigration backlogs, and a failure to address pressing needs of employers.
Trump, however, doesn’t seek a solution; he seeks the preservation of an issue — one that he believes can help him divide and conquer.
What’s needed instead, as Rep. Jayapal wrote, is a moral imagination about immigration. This is not about “open borders,” as Trump slanders Democrats. It is about creating a humane, sensible, smart system to deal with legal immigration, cut down on illegal entry and address those desperately seeking asylum.
We would also be wise to seek to assist rather than destabilize our neighbors so that their economies thrive. People don’t want to leave their homes. Only desperation for their families leads them to venture into the unknown.
As we head into this holiday season, it is a good time for each of us to look into our hearts, to see our neighbors without blinders. They aren’t seeking to invade America. They aren’t longing to leave their families, their homes, their communities. They are struggling to survive. They are strangers on the Jericho Road.
We should meet them with an open heart, not a closed mind.
Jesse Jackson
Happy Sixteenth Birthday Our oldest Little Woman
A Daughter
A daughter is a wonderful blessing
A treasure from above
She's laughter , warmth and special charm
She's thoughfulness and love
A daughter brings a special joy
That comes from deep inside
And as she grows to adulthood
She lifts your heart with orided
No words can describe the warm memories
The pride and gratitude too
that comes from having a daughter
To love and cherish just like you
This age may last only for a year
But trust me it will be an advanture
With memories that will last a lifetime
We hope your birthday cake is as sweet as you
We hope that your birthday party is as cool as you
We hope that all your friends show you a good time
But when all the dust settles you are all ours
Happy Birthday Sweetheart
Daddy , Mama , Jonny , Jenny , Man
In memory of Poppa
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
White churches have a moral responsibility to stand up
By Jesse Jackson 12/10/2018
In 2019, we will commemorate 400 years since the first 20 slaves were transported by ship from Africa by white slave traders and landed in Jamestown, Va.
Now four centuries later, race remains a central dividing line. Today, for example, the racial wealth gap exposes a stark difference. The median wealth of a white household (median means half are above and half below) is 12 times greater than that of a black household. The median wealth of a white household is $134,430, of blacks it is $11,030.
OPINION
This is virtually all about equity in a home, the leading source of middle income wealth. African-Americans still suffer from de facto segregation, after years of being red-lined from decent neighborhoods.
In the financial collapse, African-American households suffered the worse. Black unemployment rose twice as much as white unemployment in the Great Recession. Middle-class black families, lacking inherited wealth, were targeted for the most aggressive and leveraged home loans. When the bust came, they were the most at risk and suffered the greatest loss of homes.
The wealth gap is not erased by educational attainment, by full-time employment, by getting the right occupation. The typical black family with a head of household working full time has less wealth than a white family whose head of household is unemployed. Median wealth for a black family whose head has a college degree is about 1/8 that of a median white family similarly educated.
African-Americans are constantly told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. In the black church, for example, ministers repeatedly preach the need for discipline, self-reliance, faith and hard work. Yet even those who succeed still remain behind.
The divide has deep historical roots. Two-hundred forty-six years of chattel slavery (1619-1865), only twelve years of Reconstruction (1865-1877), 19 years of Black Codes, KKK and white citizen council violence (1877-1896), 58 years of legal apartheid with nearly 5,000 African-Americans lynched and, even since the 1954 Brown decision, ongoing racial discrimination.
During the recent midterm elections, I was constantly asked whether African-Americans would vote in high enough numbers and margins for Democrats so that candidates white and black had a chance to be elected. Democrats seem almost satisfied if 20 to 30 percent of whites turn out to vote for black or progressive white candidates.
What responsibility do white people have to register and turnout for progressive black and white Democrats running for office?
The nation is facing many morally relevant social, economic and political crises — voter suppression, income and wealth inequality, criminal justice reform and climate change —that now pose an existential threat to the next generation. Why does the white church remain so silent in the face of these mounting crises and denial of justice and opportunity?
In Birmingham in 1963, with dogs biting children, high-pressure fire hoses knocking down peaceful protesters, bombers blowing up churches and Dr. King in jail, many white church leaders chose to attack Dr. King’s non-violent methodology rather than to fight for a non-discriminatory Public Accommodations Act.
One would have thought when the four little girls were bombed in the 16th Street Baptist Church, white churches would have at least held prayer services or services of reconciliation. Instead, most attacked Dr. King as an outside agitator, as if he had set the bombs.
Recently in Alabama, I witnessed a stark contrast. One extreme was the excitement in anticipation of the Georgia/Alabama SEC championship football game. When a young African-American athlete, Jalen Hurts, replaced an injured Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback, every Alabamian of every political persuasion, right, left and center, was pulling for him.
With Hurts’ remarkable display of skill, Alabama won the game. He not only won the game, he arguably beat George Wallace and the legislators who earlier locked blacks out of the University of Alabama. He beat Bull Connor who unleashed the dogs on demonstrators and the KKK on Freedom Riders. He beat the KKK bombers who watched as the church was decimated and four little girls were murdered.
The other extreme was witnessed in Hoover, Ala., where E.J. Bradford was shot in the back by a policeman. That police officer is still on the payroll. The patterns and prejudices of the old South are hard to overcome.
Here once more, the white church has the opportunity and the responsibility to stand up, to serve as a Christian witness. White voices of moral authority and inclusive leadership are needed now as much or more than ever.
That is why the silence seems so deafening.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Don’t let police keep secrets in their shooting of a black man at Alabama mall
By Jesse Jackson 12/04/2018
This week, I attended the funeral service for a 21-year-old young man, Emantic “EJ” Bradford, Jr.
He was shot three times in the back by police in a Birmingham, Alabama, shopping mall on Thanksgiving night. The police were responding to a fight and shots that injured two people. Witnesses have said EJ was trying to help people escape from danger. The police claimed he was brandishing a gun (for which he had a permit) and shot him without warning.
“That boy didn’t shoot at nobody,” said an onlooker as the police crowded over Bradford bleeding to death in the mall. “They just killed that black boy for no reason.”
OPINION
Bradford, the youngest son of a military family — his father was a Marine — was working full-time, helping to support his family. The family has asked for the release of any information on the shooting, including video from body cameras. The police department has refused, saying that the shooting is under investigation.
Once more, there is justifiable fear that the police are closing ranks, using secrecy and false statements to subvert justice and protect their own.
EJ Bradford’s death is an unspeakable horror, yet one that we witness far too often. He is one of more than 850 people who have been shot and killed by the police in the United States this year, and the most recent victim of racial violence at the hands of the police.
The NRA keeps saying that a “good man with a gun” can help prevent mass shootings. Clearly, not if that good man is an African-American.
Even with a permit to carry and an intent to help the innocent get away, young African-American men become, without warning, the targets and the victims of police.
We have been here before, too many times. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed walking home in Florida. Michael Brown was shot, and his body left to rot in the middle of a Ferguson, Missouri street. In Chicago, there were “16 shots and a 400-day cover-up” of the murder of Laquan McDonald.
The list of victims of what, sadly, is a violence fueled by racism and protected by political indifference is much too long. Who will force accountability and reform?
In one of his first and last efforts in office, former Attorney General Jeff Beauregard Sessions gutted the Justice Department initiative, ramped up under the Obama administration, to use court- ordered consent decrees to force reform of police practices. Who will police the police? The current Justice Department has chosen to perversely shirk its responsibility.
EJ Bradford deserves justice. His family deserves a full and thorough and public investigation. They deserve to see what information is known about the killing of their child. The officer involved should be investigated and prosecuted under the law.
I share the pain and anger about the violent death of EJ. If the Justice Department will not act, and the police investigation is secreted away, the people must act to ensure that justice is done. I say to those who would protest, please do so in a non-violent and disciplined way.
His mother, overcome with grief, said: “My son was a loving, very loving young man. He would give any of you the shirt off his back. And that’s true. He loved people, period. He was not a killer.”
We should honor his spirit, even as we demand justice.
We ask of the police only that you do your job. Serve and protect. And release the tapes.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
How Pepsi won the USSR .. And then almost lost everything ...Contributed by my grandson Jason
My grandson Jason works for the Pepsi Company and thought I would be interested in some history of the company. I was very interested and enjoyed the video he showed me . Here it is for your edification and entertainment.
Shadow
For half a century the USSR was America's greatest rival ... and yet one American company was able to capture the heart and wallets of the Soviet Union: Pepsi.
Starting with an ambitious exhibition after Khrushchev's rise to power, Pepsi was able to negotiate a strategic trading deal with the USSR: Pepsi would sell their product in exchange for Stolichnaya vodka, which they could sell back home in America.
With trade becoming more lucrative, Pepsi's barter became increasingly ambitious: at one point they traded over a dozen submarines and were in the process of exchanging a fleet of oil tankers, but then the Soviet Union collapsed.
In a frantic scramble to secure their assets, which were now scattered across a dozen countries, Pepsi lost their footing. Coca Cola, on the other hand, stood poised to overtake their rival. The fall of the USSR was a great opportunity for them, and over the course of a single decade Coca Cola entered Russia and became the number 1 cola in the country.
Starting with an ambitious exhibition after Khrushchev's rise to power, Pepsi was able to negotiate a strategic trading deal with the USSR: Pepsi would sell their product in exchange for Stolichnaya vodka, which they could sell back home in America.
With trade becoming more lucrative, Pepsi's barter became increasingly ambitious: at one point they traded over a dozen submarines and were in the process of exchanging a fleet of oil tankers, but then the Soviet Union collapsed.
In a frantic scramble to secure their assets, which were now scattered across a dozen countries, Pepsi lost their footing. Coca Cola, on the other hand, stood poised to overtake their rival. The fall of the USSR was a great opportunity for them, and over the course of a single decade Coca Cola entered Russia and became the number 1 cola in the country.
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