Jesse Jackson urges area Black voters to awaken 'sleeping giant'

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he is on a no-C.A.R.B. diet. No Cheney. No Ashcroft. No Rumsfeld. No Bush. Jackson implored a mostly minority audience of 120 people at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Harrisburg yesterday to join the diet with him. He urged them to volunteer, to take Election Day off from work and to develop a strategy to awaken Harrisburg's "sleeping giant" of minority Democratic votes. The event was billed as the first Black Brown Leadership Summit of clergy and other black and Hispanic leaders. Jackson's visit was sponsored by the Democratic National Committee and Get Out the Vote. "Please vote to raise minimum wage," Jackson said. "Please vote for affordable housing. Please vote for first-class education. Please vote to make Social Security secure. Please vote to end dying in Sudan and Haiti. Please vote. I never thought I'd have to beg." Several times, Jackson led the audience in chants: "Save the workers. Save the family. Save the child. Stop the violence. Keep hope alive." [more]

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