An issue of credibility

Something has bugged me since 1968. I keep looking for a place to write about it, yet never have seemed to find the right spot. So this blog has to be that. It concerns Jesse Jackson and the death of Dr. King as it reflects on Jackson's behavior at the time. And since.

In the days preceding Dr. King's assassination, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was discussing ways to get rid of Jackson, whom they perceived as a self-aggrandizing, manipulative borderline crook or hustler. Dr. King was well aware of this. And so it was just a question of time before Jackson was given the boot because, as is clear, the SCLC saw him as a sleazy operator.

Flash forward to April 4, 1968. When Dr. King was shot, as photos of the moment prove, he stood on the balcony of his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel. Jesse Jackson was down in the parking lot. Seconds after the shot, he can be seen pointing in the direction from where the shot came. I repeat: Jackson was down below. This can easily be validated on Google Images. It is unarguable.

Dr. King's aids rushed him off the balcony and into the motel bedroom. Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson rushed upstairs and into the room. But then he went out onto the balcony where there was a puddle of Dr. King's blood on the cement walkway.

What happened next is something that Jackson has always refused to talk about and still refuses to explain. Here are the facts:

He got down and wallowed in Dr. King's blood so that his t-shirt was completely stained, much like Jacqueline Kennedy's suit bore marks of JFK's blood in Dallas. Then Jesse left Memphis and flew to Chicago, where people were horrified and stunned. He appeared in a big rally wearing the bloody t-shirt, explaining that he'd been there, and giving the clear impression that he'd held the dying leader in his arms and, thus, had received the mantle of the martyr. While he took care not to state it explicitly in words, the inference couldn't be avoided.

Ever since that night, Jackson made a career of being Dr. King's anointed heir. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. This fact is underscored by the fact that Coretta Scott King refused to say a word to him until Bill Clinton was first running for President. Only in 1991 or 1992, when they were both invited to lunch by Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, did Coretta deign to say "hello" to Jackson. But that was because Bill Clinton's campaign had appealed for black solidarity and she yielded to his request.

 Jackson's career of exploiting contributions from people to further his aims- contributions wrested after reluctant people were threatened with boycotts unless they capitulated- raises troubling issues about how we bestow credibility in our society. For example, when exposed as an adulterer and the father of a baby born out of wedlock, Jackson- a Reverend, no less- announced his withdrawal from any public role, only to return to the limelight after only a few days, apparently "cleansed" and eager to get back to business.

I am writing about this because, at this moment, with the issue of possible American military action in Syria raising questions about President Obama's character, I think it's very important for us all to distinguish between a craven opportunist (like Jackson) parading in a dead man's blood to establish his own reputation and a genuine leader who faces a virtually impossible decision: do we involve ourselves as a question of moral principle to punish a genocidal tyrant who uses weapons of mass destruction against his own people, contrary to the Geneva Conventions and international law? Or do we kick the can down the road and opt for patience, which some might call "appeasement," when the lessons of the 30s teach us that this only led to a greater disaster?

I don't pretend to have the answer. But since we tend to personalize issues of leadership, I think it only fair to make a distinction between people who conduct themselves honorably even in a crisis where there are no easy solutions, and people who seize the chance to inflate themselves and, so, perpetuate criminality and grandiose thuggery.