Jesse Jackson Clarifies Occupy Cincinnati Wants

Jackson rallies Occupy protesters | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com

If you know the mainstream media is pushing a storyline that the "Occupy" movement is unfocused, and you find out that Rev. Jesse Jackson is coming to town and wants to lend his support to Occupy Cincinnati, and you know the press will cover Rev. Jackson's speech, why would you have a goofball like Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, brief Rev. Jackson? Here's the takeaway line from the Cincinnati Enquirer's story:

"(Rev. Jackson) led the group in chanting about a succession of things they want -- justice, health care, freedom, respect, houses, education, prenatal care, Head Start, day care, discipline, focus, non-violence."

Why not put world peace, free weed, and intergalactic travel on the list!

When you are a local part of a national movement, and you have a national leader come to town to speak, you have to give them a good briefing on the local issues relating to the national issue. Present the national leader with a decent briefing and researched local issues and you won't have them going back to the canned speech.

People can disagree on the major issues being highlighted by the Occupy movement, but no reasonable person can say that they don't involve corporate America and economic inequality. Unless you are dummy who doesn't get it, like Josh, when given the opportunity to brief Rev. Jackson, you have to give him concrete facts, examples, and statistics to show how local corporations are part of the problem. And which locally- headquartered Wall Street traded corporations do you have in Cincinnati? Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Macy's, 5/3 Bancorp, Western & Southern, Chiquita, American Financial, Cintas, E.W. Scripps, and many more. How are they contributing to the problem? How are they not paying their fair share? These are the things you want to get with Rev. Jackson on.

When you are in a public relations fight, you don't give your opponents ammunition. The Enquirer story will probably get picked up by the local and national defenders of the 1% and they'll spend a significant part of the day making fun of Rev. Jackson and Occupy Cincinnati. The story might get placed on the Drudge Report and lampooned on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and FOX News. Every day they can spend avoiding the real issues is a day lost.

For your screw up, Josh Spring you are officially named the Cincinnati Black Blog's Idiot of the Day.

(We know Josh Spring did the briefing because he was gloating about it over at The Cincinnati Beacon.)