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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
May 12, 2002
Civil rights
leaders or hypocrites? |
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We need more American
citizens like Jim McNally. At least one more.
Jim McNally is a Chicago firefighter and the newly
elected president of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.
McNally has been a fireman since 1979. He has been described
as a hard-working, intelligent guy by some of his peers and a racist
by others. Oh, he is also white.
Some of McNally's black peers are threatening to break
away from the union because of an incident in McNally's past.
In 1987, McNally exercised his First Amendment right to protest
affirmative action in promotional exams. To dramatize his
opposition to the race-norming practice, McNally wore black-face.
Probably not the smartest choice, but very legal.
Did I mention McNally is outspoken? McNally has
not and will not apologize for the event that took place 15 years
ago and says, "If anyone is offended, that is unfortunate. I
think what the city did on promotional exams was much more
unfortunate for people on the promotion list." The practice
that helped minority firefighters leap over whites has since been
outlawed.
A group of offended black firefighters have vowed to
get out of the union. To champion their cause they have met
with, you guessed it, Jesse Jackson.
Jackson has urged all firefighters to protest McNally's
election to the union presidency.
At one of his PUSH Coalition speeches in support of the
black firefighters, Jackson said, "Your dignity is non-negotiable."
Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black? This is the same
Jesse Jackson who spit in the food of whites while working as a
waiter. This is the same Jackson who used the less than
endearing term "Hymie town" when referring to a section of New York
that was mostly populated by Jews. Will he next protest any
advancement for white men who father children out of wedlock?
The black firefighters who are offended by McNally's
decade and a half ago event have a right to protest. But Jesse
Jackson is the wrong man to throw racist stones at anyone. He
weakens their argument. He casts suspicions of credibility.
He plain and simple messes it up.
While Jesse Jackson may have a successful history of
strong-arming Fortune 500 executives, he may have met his match in
Jim McNally. McNally has verbally challenged former President
Clinton, calling him the "molester-in-chief." He called
Hillary Clinton a wimp. He has written public letters
criticizing former Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, who he called a lunatic
liar of a mayor, and former and current mayors, Richard J. and
Richard M. Daley.
"I am not afraid to speak my mind," McNally said in a
recent interview. In a 1989 letter to the Chicago Sun-Times,
he wrote, "Civil rights leaders and others who profess allegiance to
the ideals Mr. King fought for, while at the same time support
quotas and affirmative action, are hypocrites."
McNally is just what Corporate America needs. A
white man that is not afraid to speak out. If the CEO's of
Toyota, Budweiser, Denny's and the hordes of other companies that
succumbed to Jesse Jackson's frivolous threats had an ounce of
McNally's guts, well, things would be different.
I haven't made up my mind on human cloning, but if it
should ever happen, Jim McNally gets my vote to be the first test. |
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