Headline July 26th, 2012 / ''When It is Dark! A Little Light Will Do You!''

When It is Dark! 

A Little Light Will Do You!

He smeared his shirt with Martin Luther King's blood. That is another basic fact about him. He was at the bottom of the staircase when the bullet hit. Ralph Abernathy cradled the dying

man, but Jackson showed up on TV the next day with blood on his shirt and said he had cradled the dying Giant. 

To his critics, it's a proof of monstrous opportunism, to his defenders, a human reaction to a terrible shock. But surely it goes deeper than that, down into queasy, primal stuff that made everybody uncomfortable, anointing himself with the blood of his fallen king. 

At that moment, he declared himself a human symbol, which led directly to ''I am somebody'' and to his symbolic political campaign and to this moment, too. Earlier, at his passionate best, he brings the crowd higher and until 'keep hope alive' shoots them to their feet for a standing ovation. 

Then he starts the real preaching: ''Let us never forget that while David did slay Goliath, Goliath had some sons!''
''That's right!''
''And giants keep coming!''
''You tell it!''
''Brothers and sisters the rights we gained forty years ago are under attack! They seek to cut Pell grants! They seek to cut upward Bound! They raise the bar for getting public housing and then cut the budget in half! It's nighttime!''
''That's right!''

''In South Carolina, they arrested 110, 000 blacks a year over the last six years!! Fifty -four Prisons and one State College! They rent prisoners out to work for nine dollars a day to private industry, a Legal Slavery System. It's nighttime, y'all!''

''That's right! That's right!'' In this audience, things that clash in the white world make a different kind of sense. When Jackson makes a reference to Terri Schiavo and the sanctity of life, they applaud. 

They stay with him when he brings up gay marriage. ''How many of you want more investment in Public Education?'' Raise your hands. How many of you want to make Social Security safer? Raise your hands. How many of you want more affordable housing? How many of you want the war in Iraq to end?'' 

Amid shouts and applause and many raised hands, he waits a beat and delivers the kicker: ''How many of you know someone at your Church who got married to someone of the same sex? Raise your hands.'' Not a single hand goes up. ''How did that get in the middle of our agenda? Where did that come from? 

 That's somebody else's agenda giving us some false sense of morality when you need jobs. Say Jobs!''
''Jobs!''
''Health!''
''Health!''
''Education!''
''Education!''
That's right! ''Education! Education! Great Education!''

''We fall down sometimes. We get knocked down sometimes. We trip up sometimes. But we get up again!!''

''And again! And again! And again!''

We all pray with you, Sir, Reverend Jesse Jackson! Great things must be attempted! Great things must be done!

Good night & God bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice of the Voiceless