All results / Stories / Jesse Jackson

Tease photo

Biden Should Revive the U.S. Commission On Civil Rights

A new president takes office with the sense of possibility that comes with a new dawn. This is particularly true for Joe Biden, taking office after the divisive turmoil of Donald Trump's years in office. Biden inherits truly fearsome troubles -- among them the spiking pandemic, the collapsing economy, corrosive inequality, catastrophic climate change and entrenched structural racism. He stood up for Black Lives Matter and has promised a new day for civil rights, with particular emphasis on police reform.

Tease photo

President Biden’s State of the Union

Joe Biden’s State of the Union will feature good news. He has much to report – record job growth, record low unemployment, inflation down, and new efforts underway to rebuild our infrastructure, move to renewable energy and start to bring jobs back home.

Tease photo

Voters must decide which way to go

Some early voting is already underway in the 2022 elections. By all accounts, turnout is remarkably high; the partisan divide remarkably deep. The days when both parties were broad coalitions of liberals, moderates and conservatives are long gone. The partisan sorting-out began when Republicans responded to the civil rights movement by seeking to capture the white vote in the South. Now, Trump's successful efforts to purge or intimidate politicians who objected to his behavior have deepened the divide.

Tease photo

Blessed are the children

Blessed are the children – this is the teaching of every religion. The miracle of birth and the joy of new life are transcendent. In this rich country, however, too many babies and too many mothers are at risk – and far too many are dying. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that new mothers in America are dying at a higher rate than those in any other industrial country. A higher percentage of children die before their first birthday in the U.S. than in any other industrial country.

Tease photo

Let the Prisoners Go

Across the United States and across the world, prisoners are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Overcrowded facilities, shortages of food and medicine, totally inadequate testing expose prisoners who are disproportionately poor and afflicted with prior conditions that render them vulnerable to the disease. Prisoners increasingly are protesting their conditions, objecting to being sentenced to die in prison.

Tease photo

Best Outcome Would Be for Children to Be Back in School and Safe

The shutdown of Chicago public schools - the third largest school district in the country with 350,000 students - is headed into its second week. Everyone involved - the mayor, the school district officials, the teachers, the parents - agree that remote learning is bad for students and for parents, particularly those from lower income families. Everyone agrees that the best outcome would be for children to be back in school and safe. And there is where the problem arises.

Tease photo

Callous Politicians Turning Backs On Children at Border

The Trump administration has separated 2,000 children from their parents, most of whom have come to the United States seeking asylum.

Tease photo

Why Are a Few Democrats Blocking Biden's Bold Recovery Agenda?

This is the week that will tell whether Washington will act to address the growing crises that threaten our democracy.

Tease photo

Here's How Young People Can Save America

A new year is a time for reflection on the past and hope for the future. My new year's wish this year is that across the country, every high school give each graduating student a diploma and a voter registration card, and every center of education and training - whether community college or four-year university, technical training or business school - insure that every entering student is registered to vote.

Tease photo

NFL’s Depression-era Ban on Black Players Lingers On in the Owner’s Box

The National Football League season opened last week with a full slate of games. On the field, extraordinary athletes of all races and backgrounds competed with the same set of rules. Yet, it is worth noting that this has not always been the case — and that the legacy of discrimination has yet to be redressed.

Tease photo

We Americans Must Face Our Addiction to Guns

Fifty-eight dead and counting; 500 sent to hospitals. The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place Sunday in Las Vegas, as a lone gunman firing from a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel savaged a crowd gathered to watch a country music show. It was, as one observer noted, like shooting fish in a barrel. The automatic rifle fire lasted for minutes. The shooter didn't really have to aim; he only had to pull the trigger.

Tease photo

The Supreme Court's Right-wing Crusade

This week, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court ignored precedent, and trampled law and legal procedure to gut the Environmental Protection Agency's primary mission: the ability to curb pollution of harmful substances. It thereby erected a judicial roadblock to dealing with catastrophic climate change even as the alarming threat grows worse.

Tease photo

In NFL, Equality Needed On the Field and Off

The National Football League season opened last weekend with a full slate of games. On the field, extraordinary athletes of all races and backgrounds competed with the same set of rules. Yet it is worth noting that this has not always been the case -- and that the legacy of discrimination has yet to be redressed.

Tease photo

Trump Leads By Subtraction and Division; Biden By Addition and Multiplication

As the presidential campaigns heat up, Americans are provided with a stark choice of leaders. The visits to Kenosha of Donald Trump and Joe Biden provide clear contrasts for all to see.

Tease photo

Voting Rights Now!

For African Americans, freedom, citizenship and the right to vote are inextricably linked. With the victory of the Union in the Civil War, the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution -- the 13th, 14th and 15th --were passed, freeing the slaves, requiring equal justice for all, and protecting the right to vote against discrimination. Those rights were trampled by segregation, an apartheid regime shamefully ratified by a reactionary Supreme Court. It took 100 years and the civil rights movement to end segregation and pass the Voting Rights Act once more enforcing the right to vote.

Tease photo

Trump Did the Right Thing

In the last week, Donald Trump suddenly reversed two major decisions. He announced he would not begin mass deportations of those who are living in the country illegally, which he previously threatened to do, and he pulled the plug on a bombing attack on Iran, even as the military jets were on the runway. The reversals stunned aides and allies alike. In both cases, Trump disappointed hawkish advisers and zealous supporters who had urged him to act.

Tease photo

Do Trump's Actions Meet the Test of Treason?

Will Donald Trump be held accountable for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and what was a multi-layered conspiracy to overturn the results of the presidential election?

Tease photo

The Fraudulent 'voter fraud' Commission

There's a branch in philosophy called epistemology that deals with the theory of knowledge. How do we know what we know? How do we know what is true? What is believable? And what are the criteria we use to tell whether something is true or not? Considering his constant refrain of "fake news," maybe President Donald Trump should enroll in such a course.

Tease photo

March Massacre: Trump's Budget Plan Is Ruthless

ts often seem impenetrable, packed with a blizzard of numbers too big to comprehend. But budgets are value statements. They tell us what we value and what we discount. President Donald Trump's budget reveals who counts and who does not.

Tease photo

Jesse Jackson: Immigration rules should be clear and the playing field even

In one of the largest, fastest, most abrupt mass expulsions of refugees in modern U.S. history, the United States has begun flying some 12,000 Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti. Invoking executive authority asserted by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is enforcing the Donald Trump immigration policy when it comes to Haitians.

Prev