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| Jackson: Black Voters Deserve A Return On Election ‘Investment’ |
| 2012-11-12 |
| CHICAGO (STMW) – The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday said that President Obama’s reelection was “a great victory,” but that it would be incomplete with a reconstruction of urban America and an investment in the communities where the blacks who voted overwhelmingly for the president live. “We’re happy and full of pride,” in the president’s reelection, Jackson told the crowd at the Saturday morning forum at Rainbow/PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., “but our houses remain raggedy … our schools remain closed.” Despite attempts at voter suppression in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Jackson said, blacks turned out en masse to vote, enduring waits that stretched into hours in many places. “We waited, we voted, we believed,” Jackson said. “Now we want to get well. “We voted early, we voted long. Our votes won,” he said. Rev. Jackson, who spoke longer, louder, and more forcefully than he has in some time at the Saturday morning Rainbow/PUSH meeting, asked the crowd, “What do we want? We want, we want, we want, we deserve, we deserve … a return on our investment. “What’s good for us is good for everybody. What’s good for blacks is good for everybody.,” he said. “We bled too much, we died too young, we cried too much, we prayed too long, now we want a return on our investment.” Referring to those voter suppression efforts, he said, “these acts of meanness had unintended consequences.” Rather than keeping blacks and Latinos away from the polls, voter ID measures and the curtailing of access to the voting booths made people more determined to vote. “Suppression became stimulation and people fought back,” he said. “We fought back,” and the battle was won, but the war still remains, he said. “If we vote and don’t bargain we get nothing. A Jacuzzi filled with stagnant water will not get you well,” Jackson said. “You have to stir the water.” Jackson said blacks, who voted for Barack Obama for state senator, for U.S. Senator, and now twice as President of the United States, should demand, bargain, and march if necessary, for an end to “patterns of race discrimination, (for) our share of jobs. We want faster public transportation to connect us to where the jobs are.” He said black American also needs “access to capital,” noting, “It’s cruel to say. ‘jump in the pool,’ when there is no water. “ He also called for “fair trade,” a “domestic trade zone. We need a domestic OPEC,” he said. “In Chicago, for example, there are 100,000 vacant homes or abandoned lots; 40,000 in Baltimore. If we were to rebuild 25 percent, if we take down the boards and put in window panes, fix the broken sidewalks, cut the grass, fix the roofing, we’d create more jobs than there are people, just rebuilding where we live.” Jackson said, “there must be a plan for reconstruction” of urban America. Saying that automobile companies and banks got bailouts, “we’re the people who provided the votes — we want to be bailed out. We need jobs, education, healthcare now. If we can be targeted for voter registration and voter turnout, target us for reconstruction, now. “We are the new mainstream,” Jackson said. “We are the America of shared hopes and shared dreams. We have the power, we have the votes. “We waited, we voted, we believed, now we want to get well.” He then asked the crowd, “Do you want to get well? Are you willing to fight to get well? “It’s time to sing a new song, of joy and hope,” Jackson said. “It’s time to march again. March for healthcare, march for jobs. When we march great things come our way. “ |
| Posted by:Au Auric |
| #15 Quick Question: How much has the government already 'invested' in these communities over the years? What has been the results? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-11-12 23:48 |
| #14 I seem to remember reading somewhere that when they visited Rome 30 years after it fell, all that was there were ruins, outlaws and wild animals, sounds like Detroit, doesn't it? As mark said, history may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. |
| Posted by: tipper 2012-11-12 22:55 |
| #13 Budweiser distributorships for everybody!! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2012-11-12 22:54 |
| #12 #5 Be patient Jesse, now that the election is over, the ONE will have more flexibility. Well yes, if we don't Impeach him. And if we ever figure out what the real story behind Benghazi is we just might. I'm looking for Barack to start throwing kittens under the Bus next. |
| Posted by: Charles 2012-11-12 20:25 |
| #11 "What's good for us is good for everybody. What's good for blacks is good for everybody.," --minus the people you want to loot tax $$ from, but they're the wrong color and so therefore don't count. Actually, what's good for blacks Jesse would be 70% less out of wedlock kids, & a concerted belief in the inner-city that an education is a good thing. F*cking @sshole. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2012-11-12 19:32 |
| #10 Let's hope they all get what they deserve. And as Frank said the other day, unlubricated. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-11-12 17:09 |
| #9 You wanted Obama, You got him, the time to vote him OUT has passed, now you're stuck with him. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2012-11-12 15:57 |
| #8 Where's my return on investment? The govt took five figures from me last year that DID not come back. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division 2012-11-12 15:52 |
| #7 No Alpine Primate Social Worker for U Snowy! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2012-11-12 15:23 |
| #6 Even if you rebuilt the downtrodden urban areas it wouldn't provide much in the way of jobs when the construction was complete. Lawless and high union areas will continue to scare away businesses. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-11-12 15:05 |
| #5 Be patient Jesse, now that the election is over, the ONE will have more flexibility. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2012-11-12 14:51 |
| #4 "We voted early, we voted often, we voted long. Our votes won," he said. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-11-12 13:21 |
| #3 Comment redacted before being made. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2012-11-12 13:10 |
| #2 Your baby boy is a cracker from florida. request denied. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2012-11-12 11:59 |
| #1 And my baby boy wants a herd of ponies, cheaper blow and faster wymens. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2012-11-12 11:36 |