People should stand together on moral grounds and demand that the government bail out struggling farmers instead of savings and loan institutions the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Thursday.
He also said the government should recommend raising the minimum wage insteadof congressional pay.Speaking to about 6,000 people in the Dee Events Center at Weber State College, the two-time presidential candidate invited hundreds of children to move forward and sit before him and repeat: "I am somebody, red and yellow, brown, black and white...Down with dope, up with hope, keep hope alive, God bless America."
Jackson ran second to Michael Dukakis for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, winning 30 percent of the total primary vote. He also is head of the National Rainbow Coalition.
He received standing ovations before and after he spoke at Weber. His speech was centered on the plight of the poor, racism and what he feels is morally right for this country.
He called racism a sickness that has no place in a Christian society because, he said, God did not create a super people.
"Racism, therefore, is a sin because it's ungodly," Jackson said.
He said blacks have been excluded from gaining economically in this country because they are viewed as less patriotic and more violent.
He also said myths about poor people should be dispelled to alleviate poverty. Some of those myths are that most poor people are unemployed and most poor people are black.
Jackson said the truth about America's poor is most work at minimum-wage jobs and those workers are single white women with children. He encouraged the government to spend more on education, building shelters for the homeless and providing prenatal care for women, instead of supporting Contras in Nicaragua or bailing out foreign countries.