When I was a teenager, my friends and I would go walking through east Gastonia during the hot summer nights, looking for something to get into. Whenever we walked pass the cemetery, someone would say, “Boo!” We would take off running like wild chickens, as if a ghost were chasing us, only to find out after running till we were exhausted that one of the guys was the ghost.

After being fired for no good reason, I bet Shirley Sherrod would have no problem identifying with this story.

So last Thursday this hardcore, rightwing Tea Party conservative, Andrew Breitbart, released a snippet of a 45-minute speech given by a Mrs. Sherrod (USDA field worker) at an NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner last March. The clip highlights comments Mrs. Sherrod made pertaining to a white farmer she was assigned to help when she worked for a non-profit agency in rural Georgia.

After her initial interview with the farmer, she thought he would be better served by one of his, “own kind” (a white attorney). She later found out that the attorney offered the farmer no assistance because he was poor. Mrs. Sherrod (wife of Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founder Charles Sherrod) explained to the audience that the incident taught her that race was not as great a factor in determining who gets help as is socio-economic status.

Breitbart conveniently forgot to include Sherrod’s epiphany in his video clip and sent it to the race baiting, feces-spewing Fox News Network. Fox jumped on the story with a quickness. The White House got wind of the story about to be aired on the Glenn Beck show Monday night and notified Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Before the demonic Beck could break the story, the charismatic, camera-crazed president and CEO of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, denounced Mrs. Sherrod and her comments as racist. Roland Martin, a renown black journalist often featured on CNN, jumped on the bandwagon and said Mrs. Sherrod should be fired. All this occurred before anybody, including her employer, took the time to view the entire speech.

Mrs. Sherrod endured harassment from the USDA, demanding that she resign even while driving on the highway. She pulled over and typed her resignation letter on her Blackberry. Mrs. Sherrod was forced to resign by people who should have defended her integrity and honored her almost 30 years of public service. White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina applauded the USDA’s action, calling it the, “Correct way to respond in this atmosphere.” I think he meant to say in this political firestorm.

I’m furious with Fox News for using an honorable woman’s career to take another shot at the Obama Administration. I’m disgruntled with the national leadership of the NAACP for denouncing a battle-tested champion of the rural people of Georgia. Roland Martin, check your facts; use that fact check machine from “Anderson Copper 360” before you put your foot in your mouth.

However, my greatest frustration is with the White House.

Fox News says, “We got something on you guys” and the administration runs like chickens. They called Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “anti-American” and he got demonized. They called the community-based housing agency ACORN, “thugs” and national democratic leadership withdrew support. Fox said Energy Czar Van Jones was a convicted felon who participated in the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. This was proven to be a complete lie, yet he was forced to resign.

Shirley Sherrod deserves better. I’m tired of the president acting like he’s above the fray. This woman was lynched without a rope.

Barack Obama should apologize publicly to Mrs. Sherrod and not press secretary Robin Gibbs or USDA secretary Vilsack. The president must stop being punked and played by Fox News and stand up and defend this woman who became a haint overnight.

Mr. President, grow a backbone, for God’s sake.
***
George B. Jackson, D. Min., is president of the United Cornerstone School of Divinity in Thomasville.

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