Contact: Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., President, 866-573-0772, Natalie Brown, Press Sec., 757-214-9053; both with S.T.A.N.D., stand@standamerica.us
CHESAPEAKE, Va., July 24 /Standard Newswire/ -- Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr. (photo), President of STAND, a national patriotic grassroots organization, took issue with the President and Prof. Henry Gates for whining about what he called "a non-issue." Bishop Jackson is black, graduated from Harvard Law School and lived and practiced law in Cambridge for many years. He says, "I lived or worked in Cambridge for 23 years. In all that time I was never mistreated by Cambridge police."
STAND is dedicated to bringing Americans together around our common Judeo-Christian heritage and culture instead of dividing along race and class lines. "Barack Obama is the most powerful man in the world," says the Bishop. "I am shocked and dismayed that the President of the United States is playing the race card. I guess the Obama apple doesn't fall far from the Wright tree."
STAND is on a campaign to make January "American History Month" to unify and educate Americans about the nobility of our history and values. "It was the hope of most Americans that Obama would be a new kind of leader," Bishop Jackson says, "but he is starting to sound like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Instead of unifying the country, he has tried to divide us, first as rich versus poor; and now he is dividing us white versus black. This madness needs to stop."
Bishop Jackson spoke out recently and wrote an editorial against the racial stereotyping of Sen. Barbara Boxer toward Black Chamber of Commerce leader Harry Alford. Jackson says the Gates-Obama controversy is more proof that the left is race obsessed. Says Jackson, "You have the most powerful politician and one of the most powerful scholars in the world, crying about how they've been discriminated against. Then a black Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree, my former classmate, defends such nonsense. Three rich, powerful black men complaining at how unfair life is in America. They ought to thank God they are Americans."
Jackson has angered many in the traditional civil rights community for proclaiming that it is time to do away with the hyphenated American: African-American, Italo-American, Irish-American. "It is time to say 'we are all Americans and proud of it,'" says the Bishop.