Well you’ve got to give Reverend Jesse Jackson credit. He doesn’t pull punches. He just excommunicated all moderate and conservative blacks from…well…being black.
No. I’m not kidding. According to The Hill:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.
“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
Obviously what he said is stupid and offensive and says that African Americans aren’t allowed to think for themselves.
But there’s another angle to this. The media ironically has fits when a bishop says you can’t be Catholic and pro-choice but they’ll likely give Jesse a pass on saying you can’t be black and against healthcare.
I wish all of our bishops were 1/4 as gutsy as Rev. Jesse.
Nancy Pelosi can go on national television and distort the Church’s teaching on abortion and what do we get? Hand wringing from many bishops. Notre Dame honors the most pro-abortion President the country’s ever seen and what do we see? Priests having priests arrested on a college campus.
If all of our bishops could be 1/10 as serious about abortion as Jesse is on healthcare I’d be impressed.
I guess my only question is that excommunicated Catholics can always become Episcopalians, but where do former black people go? Do they have to sign on to other nationalities or ancestries?
November 19, 2009 at 3:04 am
I guess then they can drop the African and just be American.
November 19, 2009 at 3:44 am
The Polish and Spanish bishops enforce Catholic discipline decisively specially with those who support abortion. How I wish the US bishops can do the same. That's the curse of wealth, I guess. They may not want to be taxed. Or they're just afraid of the ACLU, the media, the feminist parishioners, or their liberal peers. But the point is this though: the truth in Spain and Poland is still the truth in the US i.e. the abortion supporters excommunicate themselves by their actions – whether the US bishops declare it or not doesn't change that reality. And that is real unlike Jesse Jackson's turning the brother into another hue and tint just because he did not support abortion.
November 19, 2009 at 4:02 am
Not that many moderate or conservative blacks– actually not that many blacks period–care what (Rev) Jesse "King of Beers" Jackson says or does. For decades, he's been known as a bs hustler from the same Chicago patch as the other guy…the one who is always bowing. Jesse has his group of throbbing heart diversity types and fellow hustlers that perk up when he rhymes.
November 19, 2009 at 6:17 am
Rick – the church in Spain is probably one of the worst off in Europe (I'd say above Belgium but below France). All you have to do is go to Fatima and see the "inter-faith peace chapel". The bishops there are simply ridiculous.
November 19, 2009 at 6:20 am
And before anyone corrects me, yes, I know Fatima is in Portugal. But the chapel in question was the brainchild of the Spanish bishop of Cuenca. Can't remember his name. Anyone?
November 19, 2009 at 6:26 am
As a former black person, hmmm, I'm Catholic, that trumps all race.
November 19, 2009 at 11:18 am
Early Riser: I'll take your word about the inter-faith chapel. And I know how Christianity is assailed in Europe. There was even talk of a Post-Christian era as early as 30 years ago.
Regardless, the bishops there clearly and unconditionally excommunicated every politician that will vote for abortion. Cf. http://divine-ripples.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-bishop-says-pro-aborts.html
Over here, Abp. Wuerl says he has no jurisdiction over the pols and will have to go by what the home bishop does. Now we know what the many of home bishops do not do. Then again, the USCCB tries to make up for the weakness and faults of some of its members. But the disgusting thing is that the other bishops do not cooperate e.g. the case of the flyer and instruction about the healthcare reform. These bishops are advancing their liberal agenda or are simply too scared to face the political fall out of doing their jobs. Like Jesse, someone might say that they're not bishops.
November 19, 2009 at 11:50 am
Scranton's former Bishop Joe Martino was pretty strong on the abortion issue but he was forced to resign.
Something tells me he would've been pretty loud about Senator Bob Casey's waffling on abortion in the healthcare debate.
November 19, 2009 at 11:52 am
In the same article you cite, Jackson explains his remark:
"He added that he wasn't saying that black lawmakers must vote a certain way. Instead, they should vote the interests of the people in their districts, and he said the healthcare bill would help Alabama because it's one of the poorest states in the country."
"The poorest people need healthcare protection," Jackson said. "They have the highest infant mortality and the lowest life expectancy. They're dying from lack of access."
November 19, 2009 at 1:33 pm
They're dying more from abortion.
http://www.blackgenocide.org/
November 19, 2009 at 1:54 pm
If I were one of those formerly-black congressmen, I'd accuse Rev Jackson of racial profiling.
November 19, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Stillblack,
Denying people access to healthcare won't solve the crisis that Rev. Childress is trying address.
November 19, 2009 at 2:22 pm
When I worked in my father's collection agency here in the poorest state of Mississippi – we had bills come in to our system for folks whose paperwork had the address field filled in with "lives in tent behind Dairy Queen". The long explanation as to how such bills were processed and written off to charity every single day by doctors, ambulance services, hospitals, etc. every day (without government mandate) is for another day. My question is –sincerely– who is being denied access to what healthcare on such a level that we can justify socializing medicine?
November 19, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Anita,
Only about 40,000,000 Americans don't have health insurance so far. Don't worry though, that number only gets bigger every single day.
How many more people need to lack health insurance for it to be a "real" problem?
November 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Craig – you make a good point. In fact you make the best point of the thread: the current debate is entirely about health insurance, and not really about health care at all. The health care is some of the finest in the world and people come from everywhere to avail themselves of it.
The problem is, whatever the real flaws of the insurance system, socializing the whole thing will only exaerbate them. The current Deomcratic plans will run astoundingly huge defecits, and be unsustainable. Far from providing for the "40 million without health insurance," it will more likely cost millions more their own ability to pay for basic care. It may even risk the solvency of the entire Federal Government, and cause far more suffering for far more people.
I'd take the "40 million" number with a grain of salt, btw. Some of those are rich enough not to need any insurance; some are temporarily without while moving from plan to plan; some are people who risk it because they're young and generally healthy; and some, no doubt, are imaginary people required by the media to exaggerate the need, the same way that the number of homeless Americans increased when there was an agenda to pursue.
November 19, 2009 at 6:02 pm
nightfly,
The US healthcare system is ranked 37th in the world and we currently pay twice as much for our crappy healthcare as those who live in the 36 countries ranked higher than us.
That is what is unsustainable.
November 19, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Craig,
I'd like to see that list of "Who has the best (or worst) healthcare"–along with who made the list, what his/their criteria were for measuring each country's healthcare, and the documentation to back up those findings. Is there a link we can follow or a book we can read that breaks it all down and explains how the USA landed in 37th place?
November 19, 2009 at 7:46 pm
We have been throught this soooo many times. Other countries count their statistics in a far different manner than in the US. Look at statistics when it comes to infant mortality, most other nations do not count babies born under a certain age or weight as live births and do not count 1-3 year olds as infants. If you compare apples and oranges then you get numbers that claim we have horrible health care.
Everyone knows perfectly well that we have the best medical care on the planet- people come from all over the world for life saving treatments and surgery. Americans are NOT going to Canada and England to get their care. We just expect you to pay for it and not ask your rich neighbor (who just happens to be a cardiologist who studied for 15 years to make $300K a year) to give you the money.
I'm offended every day by the idea that doctors are all rich SOBs who "steal" from their patients and gouge the insurance companies. My husband works 12 hour days providing care to our nation's soldiers and I'm out shopping at the thrift store to clothe our kids. If you want to see the greedy jerks who have all the $$, just watch CSPAN.
November 20, 2009 at 12:56 am
kat, I think you win comment of the day. Thank you!
November 20, 2009 at 11:09 am
kat,
I have never heard of anyone blaming doctors for the awful state of our healthcare, nor should they. In fact, most physicians support a public option to help break the bone-crushing hold private insurance companies have on access to healthcare.
Since you say your husband treats soldiers, does he get paid through TRICARE?