Jesse Jackson: MLK bomb planter ‘more sick than mean’

MOSCOW, Idaho — Whoever left a backpack bomb on the route of Spokane’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day march last month “was more sick than mean,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday. “We must address the issues that drive us to sickness.” The civil rights leader is in Moscow, Idaho, where he will speak at 7:15 tonight at the ASUI-Kibbie Activity Center. During a news conference in advance of his address, Jackson spoke of the conditions in the United States today that make unthinkable violence thinkable. Law enforcement continues to hunt for clues to the apparently racially motivated bomb attempt in Spokane. “We are the most violent nation on Earth,” Jackson said, a nation where each year 32,000 people are killed by gun violence. Yet we remain “addicted to semi-automatic weapons. “ The Super Bowl, Jackson said, was not just a game but “a metaphor for our dreams of America.” “On the playing field there is an inherent sense of justice,” Jackson said, where referees and instant replay makes sure the game is played fairly. But off the field, minorities and the poor are still struggling to find their place in America. On the subject of Egypt, Jackson said the United States “chose stability over democracy and ended up embracing tyrants” as it has done in Africa and Latin America. We have subsidized the wealthy, creating a huge disparity driven by greed, Jackson said. “Today we have achieved freedom in America,” he said. “Now we need to achieve equality.”