LEE DRESSELHAUS

Bill and Rev. Jesse – birds of a feather

So.Jesse Jackson has a love child. Hmmm. In the words of the great American philosopher Jed Clampett, now, don’t that just take the rag off the bush? I’ve always held a pet theory that the people who are the loudest in their condemnation of the immoral, and in their denouncement of those they consider less virtuous than themselves, are very often the ones who have the darkest secrets. Those secrets are kept tucked carefully away from the prying eyes of the mere mortals they condemn. Because if those secrets get out, they just might come crashing down from the pedestals they worked so hard to install themselves upon. I’ve often wondered what a fly on the bedroom wall of people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Jerry Falwell and the like would see. I’ve no doubt that in some cases, and not necessarily those mentioned above, they’d see things that would have Caligula reaching for the phone to call 9-1-1 and looking for the nearest church. My point is, simply, this. How can anyone like Jesse Jackson have the gall to preach “moral responsibility” to thousands of people when he doesn’t have, and possibly never has had, any of his own? The whole thing goes way beyond a man in a position of power securing a much younger woman for himself. Happens all the time. It even goes beyond that same man of power choosing that woman from among the ranks of his employees. (In this case she was a worker involved somehow in his Rainbow Coalition.) That happens, too. The difference here is that Jackson has been preaching for years against the very thing he himself is doing. Here’s a real kicker. According to an MSN web site, the Right Reverend Jackson is now providing the woman who had his illegitimate child with $10,000 a month in support. Okay, you say, that’s only right. And, in fact, it is. I would just like to bring up one small point, one that kind of ties in to the whole hypocrisy angle. Where is that money coming from? The Right Reverend doesn’t have a job per se. He is the ultimate self-promoter who tries to convince the world that racism is the underlying cause of every disagreement between black and white, and is behind every arrest of a black person, and the cause of just about every woe that befalls anyone who is not of European heritage. And as long as he can keep that pot stirred, he has an income. Because people donate money to the Rainbow Coalition. Let me tell you. If I were a cash donor to that organization and I found out that Jackson was using that amount of money to support n and perhaps even cover n a total lapse in his moral authority, well, I’d have a real problem with that. I’m sure I’d want to know just where Jackson’s paycheck is coming from. It’s also interesting to note that the child is almost two. Jackson wasn’t exactly forthcoming about the whole thing and most likely would have remained quiet as a little mouse about it. Unfortunately for him the National Enquirer got a hold of the story and, being the blabbermouths that they are, had the nerve to put it on the front page of their paper. Those bad boys. So what does he do? He makes statements about not making statements so that he can give the child and its mother the “privacy they deserve.” Hogwash. When you get involved with a “look at me” public figure like Jackson, you takes your chances with the privacy thing. What he really means is that he hopes to wriggle out of public scrutiny with as much of his hypocritical skin intact as he can. Hey, by the way, he also visited the Oval Office with his pregnant girlfriend in tow during the impeachment scandal and was greeted by Bill Clinton himself. Now, ain’t that something? I guess birds of a feather really do flock together. The moral of the story is this. We, all of us, live three lives. We all have a public life, the one that our co-workers and friends see. We all have a private life, the one that we share with our families and intimate acquaintances. And we all have a secret life, one that is so personal, so hidden that only a few, and often no one, shares it with us. Jesse Jackson just made the cardinal mistake of desiring the public’s attention all the time, wanting all eyes on him, and trying to have a secret life at the same time. The two don’t mix. Jackson supposedly has said something about retiring from public life now. Good. Not a moment too soon. I hope it happens, but he’s slick, and if he can find a way to fool more of the people all of the time like he’s been doing all along, he just may survive this whole thing. Bill did. Ain’t that something? LEE DRESSELHAUS writes this column every Wednesday for L’Observateur.