Wednesday, July 14, 2010

"Whatever happened to..."


With all the "Race, Race, Race" that's been injected into what passes for political discourse these days, a question kept coming up in what passes for my mind: "Whatever happened to Jesse Jackson?"

I'd've heard if he was dead. But he's been awfully quiet for years, and quiet isn't (what passes for) JJ's style. I can only assume that the Big O Administration doesn't want him around. Hey! Barry can do something smart!

Then a couple of days ago I was working in The Secret Lair, with Limbaugh blaring in through the window from the Jeep's radio. (Yes, I listen to Limbaugh sometimes. Bite me - the alternative is country music.) And in connection with a story that interested me not the slightest bit (Who the hell is LeBron James?) I heard that name that used to infuriate me so regularly.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. From the heady days in the '60's when he was allowed to sneak into group pix with MLK Jr., through blackmailing major corporate leaders, a couple of days of having democrats pretend to take him seriously as a presidential candidate, to bitching about what-all a millionaire basketball team owner says in a fit of foot-stomping. It's kinda sad. I'll bet he's still got that bloody shirt he wore for what seemed like days after King was killed, and wonder if he knew he was peaking, way back then. I doubt it.

I always kinda wondered where he got the blood.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesse put some humor into the long tiresome matter of LeBron...which, living in NE Ohio as I do, I could scarcely avoid, even from the pulpit of my church. If James was an "escaped slave", why did he go South? We used to be pretty good here at sending them on to Canada. Maybe he should take up hockey instead.

CorbinKale said...

That is wierd. JJ has been completely silent on the New Black Panther voter intimidation case. WHOA! I just realized that Sharpton has been quiet, too!

Spooky. Something is up.

When my son was a tot, the wife and I would always catch the boy when he was up to mischief. He never figured out how we caught him. It was when his constant ruckus ceased that he was most likely implementing his nefarious schemes.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh Jesse High Jackson.

He came to Nike when I worked at tNike HQ just after college. He tried to (as you said) blackmail the corporate execs by asking how many minorities Nike hires. I believe the execs turned around and asked to see the racial makeup of The Rainbow Coalition and that ended the discussion.

All I know is that Nike regularly paid multi-million dollar contracts to top athletes (many minorities) for sponsorship and gave Michael Jordan an office on the top floor of a building that they named after him. I was a white kid just out of college making squat but it was as it should have been in that Nike paid market prices for the available talent that it wanted to hire. People like Michael Jordan did a lot for the brand by being sponsored athletes. Not to mention that Mr. Jordan is one hell of a nice guy.

Jesse is and always will be nothing but a blowhard thug. I think no better of the EEOC.

Cory

suek said...

>>It was when his constant ruckus ceased that he was most likely implementing his nefarious schemes.>>

My mother told me that she threaded bells into my shoes. When they stopped "moving", she started moving...!