Jesse Jackson has had a long history with the State of Iowa and I'm glad I was a part of it with him.  But, I DO miss the person I knew as the OLD Jesse Jackson.

I miss the OLD Jesse Jackson.  The Jesse Jackson that stood with crying family farmers in Iowa during the farm crisis/downturn in the mid to late 80's when farmers were getting sold out by their banks.  I remember him shouting down the auctioneers and trying to negotiate bankers with farmers.  I saw a black man from Chicago standing with white family farmers in Iowa when other whites wouldn't stand with them.  Keep Hope Alive rang true...and there was hope.

I miss the OLD Jesse Jackson who spoke at our rural Iowa church around Christmas time and told of a poor couple, who didn't have insurance, didn't have a home, couldn't afford a hospital bed for a baby that was going to be born.  He said that everyone talked about the mother as a dirty person, because she was having the baby by another father, who was not her husband.  She couldn't afford a hospital or prenatal care or daycare, and she had to deliver the baby....in a manger....the story of Mary & Joseph had a different meaning the way it was told that night at our rural Iowa church on a cold December night.

I miss the OLD Jesse Jackson who marched with us for union employees in the dead of an Iowa winter who where shut out by their union here in Iowa.

I remember the OLD Jesse Jackson touring flooded parts of Des Moines, Iowa, long before FEMA came to help, telling the residents to Keep Hope Alive....

I miss the OLD Jesse Jackson who would travel overseas to free hostages and negotiate with dictators to get our young men and women home safely.

Has Jesse Jackson changed....?  Sure -- maybe we all have.  But I'll never forget the impact he had on my life and the lives of other Iowans.