Posted on 05/10/2002 8:46:45 PM PDT by mhking
Looking at it as an adult in hindsight? Not a damned thing. He didn't go anywhere near far enough. He talked enough of a game to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, then he morphed into the Jesse that we all "know and love."
It's outright embarassing how many biographies there are that gloss over the embarassing parts of his history. FOr example:
The results of Mr. Jackson's fight for social causes that have accrued for the overall Black Community are incalculable, however, his activities have lifted the fortunes of his family and siblings. [Source]They're incalculable all right. Only in the opposite direction intended, I fear.
It seems odd that the main focus of criticism of him is that he's made himself rich. I'm a lot more interested in how well or badly his programs actually helped people. Look at this free pass:
Out of this came Jackson's program, PUSH-EXCEL, which sought to motivate young school children to do better academically. In 1981, Newsweek magazine credited Jackson with building a struggling community improvement organization into a nationwide campaign to revive pride, discipline, and the work ethic in inner-city schools. With funding from the Carter administration, the PUSH-EXCEL program was placed in five other cities. [Source]Note how it never says anything about how well these programs worked, just that he started them.
It is truly embarassing how little scrutiny this man has received; even now, it would appear that his infidelity is more important than his fraud, which I think is just plain wrong.
D
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