Truth and Consequences (not the New Mexico town)

The following from the MSNBC.com blog pages:

	
NEW YORK - We have been inviting Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to

appear on Countdown since we began to cover the voting irregularities story on November

8th. It struck me as not quite coincidental that he finally joined us the same day the

Ohio GOP issued what might be the first Republican recognition of any kind that there

are questions about the vote - a news release with the gaudy headline “Democrats

Struggle to Justify Unnecessary Recount / (Jesse) Jackson swoops in to fuel conspiracy

theories even Kerry lawyers admit are baseless.” While it was the Greens and Libertarians

filing for the recount, the Republicans seemed to prefer silence. But after Jackson spoke

in Columbus Sunday and Cincinnati Monday, suddenly Mr. Blackwell was available. “I think

what happened,” he said, “is that Jesse Jackson ran around the block and tried to get

out in front of a parade that was already on the march.”




Jesse Jackson has done some great things for the Civil Rights movement; the

Rainbow/PUSH coalition comes to mind.  However, in recent decades he has done more to

set it back by making himself a media circus.  He did the same thing back when I was

at The University of Texas.  I can't remember what exactly had happened, I think

something about race and SAT scores, but he indeed swooped in to fuel the fire.  He

made it about his face time rather than the comments made by the UT professor.  But

don't think this is racism.  Many white folk in Hollywood have boarded bandwagons as

though they are the engineers, and, while it's good they can put their money and their

faces toward campaigns against human suffering, it can quickly become about them.

So, I salute Mr. Blackwell for having the guts to say something like he did.  I know

he'll get a lot of flack for it, with many pundits labeling him a racist.  My hope is

that he won't back down and retract his statement.  That's a pet peeve of mine.

People say something that is both harsh and truthful, but when someone gets offended

they tuck tail and run and hide behind their PR people.  They said they didn't mean

what they said, blah blah blah.  Sure you meant it or it wouldn't have come out of your

mouth.  Now you just lost your integrity.  I told someone recently that you can't

please 100% of the people 100% of the time or you'll die of a heart attack by the time

you're 30.  Sure I want people to like me, but I'm going to say something that's going

to get under someone's skin.  You know why it gets under your skin so much?  Because

it's possibly true and you don't like that you could have a weakness.  I know I don't

like to think I have a problem or weakness.  And I feel hurt and angry when someone

points it out to me.  But it's up to me to react in the correct way; to look at myself

and figure out if what's said is true.  If so, then I should thank the person who

pointed it out to me and work on it.  I've said things in the recent past that,

although I'm sorry I hurt feelings, I absolutely meant.  I could have done it in a

different way and perhaps not had such a hard time.  And hey, I could be wrong;

perception isn't always reality.  I deserved the consequences of my actions.  But I

take responsibility, apologize for the way I went about it and try to learn from it.



Until next time, Hook 'em Horns, go Southern Miss.  I'll be posting my fix to the

BC-Mess.