Moments before the Rev. Jesse Jackson took the podium at Ohio University to speak about poverty reform, representatives from several student organizations distributed literature asking audience members to reject the civil-rights leader's ideas.
Members of Young Americans for Liberty and Students for Liberty passed out fliers before Jackson's speech outside Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorum encouraging attendees to "help the poor; reject Jackson's ideas."
Jackson is speaking at OU, in the same spot President Lyndon B. Johnson presented his War on Poverty ideas in 1964, to advocate for a White House commission on poverty, malnutrition and human need.
"We heard Jackson was coming to speak, and we thought, 'Well, he's kind of wrong about everything,' " said Nathan Kelly, a junior studying English education and a member of Students for Liberty.
Kelly said the protesters believed Jackson was proposing ideas that have already been tried and failed. Rather than putting funds into an initiative and thus taking money from taxpayers, the best way to help the poor is to provide the tools for them to help themselves, he said.
"Instead of throwing money at the problem, Rev. Jackson could advocate a platform of individual empowerment and sound economic logic to mitigate the destructive forces of poverty," the flier states.
The flier encouraged the following ideas regarding alleviating poverty:
—The poor gain the most from private-property rights and market exchange.
—Stop government support of politically connected corporations.
— Encourage community action for poverty assistance.
— Remove artificial costs on businesses.
The students suggested abolishing minimum-wage laws and removing barriers on trading.
"Why don't we try something else?" Kelly said. "Why don't we free the market?"
rm279109@ohiou.edu
