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Alex McRae Columnist

Published Sunday, February 05, 2012

Peace at last

Say hallelujah, brother. The civil rights struggle is over.

Don't take my word for it. A leader in that noble struggle just announced his latest concern isn't race, but rhythm.

Once upon a time, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. decided the time had come for every American to honor the principle that "All men are created equal." King didn't just preach the gospel of civil rights. He fought for his beliefs and was beaten, cursed, jailed and spat upon for his trouble.

King's courage in the face of violent opposition softened a nation's heart and changed a country's future for the better.

In the bad old days, when civil rights workers were routinely abused and incarcerated, King's followers gladly stood shoulder to shoulder with their leader and suffered along with him.

None was more devoted than Jesse Jackson, who was with King in Memphis when an assassin's bullet took King's life. When it comes to civil rights credentials, Jesse Jackson's are gold-plated.

When King died, Jackson became one of the new leaders of America's civil rights movement. But somewhere along the road to freedom, Jesse lost his way. He became the face of the movement but used his role as a civil rights warrior to con more cash from American businesses than he could count.

When Jesse was on message, nobody was better. But even Jesse would admit his message was often drowned out by stupid sayings.

One of Jesse's favorite tactics was leading a crowd in chanting "I am. Somebody."

Lately, with people more worried about jobs than justice, Jesse has been a voice crying in the wilderness. Instead of "I am. Somebody," an overlooked Jesse was reduced to mumbling "I Ain't. Nobody."

Jesse needs the spotlight like roses need rain. Nobody was rioting over civil rights so he found a new source of injustice: the music industry.

A few days ago, Jesse attacked the Grammy Awards.

Injustice at the Grammys? Who knew?

Apparently, Jesse.

On the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards, Jesse claimed the Grammys were oppressive because the governing body had reduced the number of Grammy categories from 109 to 78 this year. Jesse said the discarded award categories featured music played by minorities.

Jesse stopped just short of calling the action racist, but made it clear he thought the Grammy move was musical bigotry.

"So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins," Jesse said. "You limit the base, you miss too much talent."

Jesse realized he needed to connect with a newsworthy movement to draw media attention. Civil rights isn't hip right now, so Jesse hopped on the Occupy bandwagon.

He said, "We are prepared to work with artists and ministers and activists to occupy at the Grammys so our appeal of consideration of mercy really might be heard."

Occupy the Grammys? Cool.

Grammy officials claimed Jesse was playing sour notes. Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Grammy show, said, "We are receptive to meeting with the Rev. Jackson to explain how our nomination process works and to show the resulting diverse group of nominees it produced for the 54th Grammys."

Translation: We'll do whatever it takes to make Jesse go away so his Occupy protest won't overshadow the Grammy show.

It might work. Jesse said he wanted "cooperation, not confrontation."

The record shows Jackson might also settle for a healthy donation to his Rainbow/Push coalition. Or at least a free autograph from Beyonce.

The "Good Times" may not be here, but better times have definitely arrived. Once upon a time Jesse Jackson fought for civil rights. Now he fights injustice by occupying the Grammy Awards.

When it comes to human rights, if that ain't progress, nothing is.

(Send your email comments to: alex@newnan.com )

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