Churches Amplify Call For Justice For Trayvon Martin

African-American community churches around the nation on Sunday amplified the call for justice in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Jesse Jackson preached a sermon on the teen's death in Eatonville, Fla.

Limbaugh's NFL Bid Draws Fire

The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson attacked the bid by Rush Limbaugh to buy the St. Louis Rams on Monday, saying the conservative radio host's track record on race should exclude him from owning an NFL team.

LAUGH FACTORY WANTS JESSE TO PAY FOR N-WORD: Owner Jamie Masada says he should pay a fine like comics on his stage.

Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who has had some experience in dealing with the N-word spewing forth from his stage, says Jesse Jackson should be fined for his recent public use of the racist term.


After the Michael Richards episode two years ago, when the actor repeatedly shouted the N-word at a black patron, Rev. Jackson joined Masada in calling for the term to be banned at the Laugh Factory.

Since the outburst, Masada has fined comics $50 for every time they use the word on stage.

LAUGH FACTORY WANTS JESSE TO PAY FOR N-WORD....

Commentary: Obama Was Right, but -- His Stupid Comment Aside -- Jackson’s Underlying Concern Was Too

By: Deborah Mathis

For the moment, let’s set aside the crudeness and rudeness of the reverend’s remarks, as captured in whispered tones on none other than the Fox network; and let’s, instead, go to the essence of Jesse Jackson’s criticism of Sen. Barack Obama when he said to a fellow TV talk show guest, “I wanna cut his nuts off.”

Now, what might make a man who has built his career on peacemaking -- or troublemaking in the name of peacemaking -- say such a thing? Especially a man, purportedly, of the cloth? “Pop him up ‘side the head” or “slap him silly” or even “kick his ass” -- any of those would be more like it (though Fox and other media would make just as much out of it). But “cut his nuts off?” Even womenfolks have to say, “Yeow.”

What might get Jackson that hot under the clerical collar could just be that he thinks Obama is talking or behaving in a way that upsets the good reverend’s life’s work or life’s message. It was, after all, Obama’s now-infamous Father’s Day speech at a Chicago church that Jackson referenced in what we might call “the amputation comment.”

COMMENTARY....

Obama Could Alter Black America's Leadership

In his 1963 book "Strength to Love," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem."

When King was assassinated in Memphis 40 years ago, the progress he had made gave way to a concern: Who would fill his shoes? Who would speak for black America? Few leaders, African-American or otherwise, have been able to enact social change on the scale King did.

But the void left by King was eventually shared by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Jackson was traveling with King at the time of the assassination and was one of the last few men to see him alive. Sharpton had brief encounters with King as a youth. But he forged a strong bond with Jackson, who acted as his mentor, the two bonding via their shared adoration of King's work.

They're not the only black leaders working toward racial equality. They are, however, the only black leaders who have turned themselves into brands, doing so by cradling the restlessness of the civil-rights movement in their arms and carrying it forward from the '60s.

The two have long been criticized as publicity junkies, but they have loomed so large for so long that it had become hard to imagine a black America without them as the de facto spokesmen. That is, until the ascendancy of Barack Obama (a man whom King, were he alive today, would recognize as precarious progress incarnate). Obama has made himself the first viable black presidential candidate in large part by selling a vision of the future in which our nation's racial wounds can be healed by cooperation rather than opposition.

A major component of Obama's strategy has been to distance himself from prominent black leaders while being careful not to minimize their contributions. He has successfully navigated the tightrope walk. Obama has gained the support of Jackson, Sharpton and the Revs. Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright-all of whom Obama has kept at arm's length or publicly rebuked. Obama hasn't lost any of his support among the black community as a result. This suggests that if a general-election campaign succeeds, his presidency could have a changing effect on the leadership of black America not seen since King's death.

Sharpton acknowledges that an Obama presidency would change certain equations, but dismisses the notion it would damage his own relevance. "Obama is not running for the president of black America, he's running for president of America," he tells NEWSWEEK. "He wouldn't be in a position to mobilize people in response to racial injustice." Jackson agrees: "We currently have an African-American secretary of State, but that hasn't impacted our foreign policy. Having someone in the White House who is sensitive to these issues is helpful, but you still have to raise them."

Their positions on the issue are, of course, biased in the interest of self-preservation. But it's true that an Obama presidency would not mitigate the need for racial-justice advocacy. It would, however, raise new questions about whether Jackson and Sharpton are the men to do it. As long as people crave today's fresh ideas over yesterday's leftovers, the leadership of social movements will tend to fall to the young. Obama's youth has influenced his ability to inspire enthusiasm as much as his race has. Because of the impact King had, it's easy to forget that he was only 39 when he was killed. Jackson, meanwhile, is 66. Sharpton is 53. Farrakhan and Wright, now both retired, are 74 and 66, respectively. Rather than taking the tools of the civil-rights movement-stirring rhetoric, symbolic unity, nonviolent resistance-and arming a new generation with them, Jackson and Sharpton have never let go.

As they advance in age, the men will have to cede the spotlight to someone else-a new, ground-level leader. Like them, that person will have to be able to lobby for racial equality in ways elected officials cannot. But proximity to Jackson or Sharpton won't confer those responsibilities on anyone. Or will they? Jackson seems unsure. "Most doors open because you know the name of a certain person," he tells NEWSWEEK, suggesting he might be the one to eventually groom his successor. But then he suggests the opposite: "You can't just name a guy. When doors open, all kinds of guys come through." If the Obama experiment proves a success, if Americans can bridge their separations through dialogue, it becomes less likely that the person who walks through that door will hew to a bombastic style.

This article continues here: www.newsweek.com/id/130609

SHARPTON, JACKSON LEAD SEPARATE MARCHES

Two civil rights activists are attempting to call attention to two prevailing problems affecting the black community.


Rev. Jesse Jackson will march on Wall Street next month to protest subprime adjustable-rate mortgages that have sent many poor Americans – of all races – into foreclosures. Meanwhile, Rev. Al Sharpton plans to march in the Nation's Capital today against the rise of noose hangings and other hate crimes following the Jena 6 incidents in Louisiana.

Rev. Jackson hopes his New York rally, scheduled for Dec. 10 with similar marches the same day in other cities, will press the financial community and the government to relax terms of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages to head off a massive wave of home foreclosures he says will likely hit poorer communities hardest.

Jackson, who has long accused the finance industry of steering minorities to subprime loans, told the Sun-Times that a rally of "borrowers marching on lenders" will be held under the banner "Save our houses -- choose restructuring over foreclosing."

Foreclosures nationwide jumped nearly 100 percent in the third quarter this year compared with last year, and Jackson said it's likely to get worse as hundreds of billions' worth of ARMs reset from low "teaser" rates to higher rates over the next year.

"We see the tsunami coming in January and March, and before it hits, we're going to go to the streets," he said. "If somebody is paying $900 a month, they are already a good customer. If it goes to $1,500, they don't need counseling or refinancing, they need restructuring of that twisted ARM."


Sharpton and his National Action Network are leading the scheduled Washington D.C. March on Hate Crimes, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. today at the U.S. Dept. of Justice (950 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W).

The march will circle the building seven times to symbolically represent the biblical story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, in which God's chosen people marched around the city of Jericho seven times for seven days and the walls of their oppressors came tumbling down.

More info about today's March Against Hate Crimes is available here: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/html/washington_d_c__march.html