The Reverend

When Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, the media grabbed hold of a young man who was at the scene, who actually held King as he died from gunshot wounds on a hotel balcony. At least that's what Jesse Jackson told the media.

When King was shot, Jesse Jackson was nowhere near the balcony where King died. Instead, he was in the parking lot below the balcony. He hid for a while, which is understandable. Most people would want to be away from the dangers of gunfire. But then the TV cameras began appearing. Jesse Jackson was born, in a sense, from between the legs of a camera tripod.

Ken Timmerman, author of Shakedown, a Jackson expose, interviewed the people who were actually with King when he was shot. He spoke with the others who, at the time the shots rang out, were in various places around the hotel. As soon as the TV cameras showed up at the hotel, Jackson told others in the group that they should not talk to the press. What did Jackson do next? He went immediately to Chicago, hired a public relations agent, and did an interview on NBC's Today Show. In a bloody shirt.

He'd been there, you see. He had held King in his arms as he died. The only problem was that it was all a lie. There were other interviews that day. A legend was born. A Chicago power rose quickly, and literally, from nowhere.

That's not where the fun stops. The Reverend Jackson never completed any kind of seminary. No one is sure where the title Reverend came from. He has a college degree--an honorary doctorate--from an institution that bestowed Jackson with the degree after Jesse Jackson, Jr., was appointed to the school's board. Other than a phony title and a bogus degree, Jesse Jackson has no credentials.

And now he surfaces again. This time to decry the violence that has so publicly humiliated the city of Chicago. It's not surprising to see community leaders step forward to rally Chicagoans after the pointless death of a sixteen-year-old kid who was near--not in, but near--a gang fight. How did he show his support for finding an end to the gang violence in Chicago? He rode on a bus with some of the teenagers from the deceased student's school. And he made a statement at a news conference (gee, I wonder who called that news conference?). According to several articles, Jackson said, “This is a state of emergency given patterns of violence and patterns of killing." Surely Jackson knows what he's talking about. After all, no one would use the term pattern if he had not studied such things. Using the term pattern implies a familiarity with the issue.

If I were the father of the boy who died at the hands of some of Chicago's finest young men, I would welcome Jackson's efforts to rally the community. I would also do whatever I could to support him and his attempts to reassure the youth of Chicago that it's OK to stand up for what's right, and that gang violence is a fast track to nowhere-ville. I'd embrace Jackson. So long as he promised there wouldn't be any cameras. Then, and only then, might I believe he was sincere.