Saturday, November 12, 2005

Jesse Jackson's "Returning New Orleanians” Talk Funny

WISE URL:
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=9936

“They’re trapped in those rescue camps,” Jackson explained his humanitarian campaign to the media. “They (the New Orleans refugees) should have the right to return and priority in jobs and housing.” And so he led over 200 of these “trapped New Orleanians” in a five-bus caravan that started in Chicago wound through St Louis, Memphis, Mobile and Jackson and finally pulled up to New Orleans on October 11th.

“Their accents don’t sound right for New Orleanians,” noted New Orleans natives Shantell and Woodrow Arnold after they boarded one of the Rainbow/Push buses in Jackson Ms. The buses landed amidst much fanfare and the local TV and radio stations were on hand to interview the multitude of returning “New Orleanians.”

But the accents didn’t sound right to the media people holding the mics either. They went from one returnee to the other, frantically seeking an actual New Orleanian. Turned out, exactly 14 of the 200 people were from New Orleans. And when the rest of the bus riders discovered the state of local conditions 75 per cent of them promptly boarded the buses and fled back to their homes in Memphis, Chicago, Mobile, etc. “It was hard to convince displaced residents to return home,” finally admitted Denise Dixon, national field organizer for the Rainbow/PUSH coalition.

But nary a peep issued from Reverend Jackson regarding the discrepancy......

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