Same old, same old. That is what the Rev. Jesse Jackson offered the Bethel A.M.E. congregation gathered to hear him Sunday. He used the pulpit to rail against free trade, ask for “economic sustenance” from the government and decry that many are starving in this land of plenty. Maybe he is too busy shopping at Whole Foods to realize the rest of us who shop at Walmart need to lose a few.
But his mistake extends beyond poor observational skills. He makes government into a savior. That is not only wrong — it is dangerous. If we believe Barack Obama is Jesus, we stop working to make our communities better and wait for the federal government to do it for us.
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Another reverend, Floyd Flake, a former Democratic congressman from New York and the senior pastor of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral and Development Corporation in Jamaica, N.Y., knows this. Flake, whose work helped to turn his neighborhood from a slum into a thriving community of businesses and homeowners, came to Baltimore last week on behalf of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore. He talked about how to revitalize downtown. “Let us not make [Obama] the messiah,” he said.
He also said cities cannot “clamor for resources” without first having a plan and urged community groups to stop “finding their joy in talking about what they would eventually do.”
That is the message Jackson should have preached, the same as he correctly admonishes Wall Street.
Surely we take pride in our new president, the first African American to hold that post, just as we can take pride in Sheila Dixon, the city’s first African American woman to hold her position. Their wins are something to celebrate. But they are not “transformational” as so many have described Obama.
Only we have the power to start businesses, volunteer and transform our city from one that sheds people to one that welcomes them and the tax revenue they generate for the entire state. President Obama and Mayor Dixon can encourage that growth by creating an environment that spurs risk taking. As we consistently urge, that means slashing property taxes — at least twice as high as those in the rest of the state — in half in this city. We have tried every other form of “economic sustenance” and failed. In this economic downturn there is no better way to help residents and build the framework for the city to become a net contributor to state tax rolls instead of a drain on every taxpayer in Maryland.
