Al Sharpton Lectures About Being "Passionate But Not Poisonous"!?

Of all people, why would the Washington Post feature an op-ed by Al Sharpton that In MLK's honor, let's strive for dialogue that's passionate but not poisonous:

The senseless violence in Arizona this past weekend left all of us stunned, but this devastating act hit home for me more than most. I have been a victim of violence that could have cost my life, and I have been involved in controversies that led to violence in which my words were distorted and misused.

Sharpton goes on to describe the events leading up to his being stabbed:

In 1991, weeks of protests followed the racially motivated killing of a black 16-year-old in New York. There were incidents of taunts, people throwing watermelons and open threats. I was leading a peaceful march in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, when I was stabbed. I look at that stab wound every morning. It reminds me of how close I came to leaving my children fatherless - all because of the intense political climate of the day. I wrestled for months with how to address that climate and the race-based attack. Even though this was an effort to kill me, I asked the court for leniency toward my assailant. In the spirit of King's teachings, my focus was to set a tone of forgiveness and reconciliation. Despite my efforts, the judge sentenced this man to nine years.

I decided to visit my attacker in jail. This was by far the most difficult thing I had to do - to look directly in the face of a man who tried to kill me. I told him I did it for me, not for him.

To be clear, I am not seeking credit for a noble act.

Not seeking credit for for a noble act--we sure hope not.
It is noteworthy that Sharpton avoids mentioning what else he was involved in during that time of his life--the kinds of protests he arranged that brought him media attention.

It is not for nothing that Jeff Jacoby compares Al Sharpton to David Duke:

1987: Sharpton spreads the incendiary Tawana Brawley hoax, insisting heatedly that a 15-year-old black girl was abducted, raped, and smeared with feces by a group of white men. He singles out Steve Pagones, a young prosecutor. Pagones is wholly innocent -- the crime never occurred -- but Sharpton taunts him: "If we're lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it." Pagones does sue, and eventually wins a $345,000 verdict for defamation. To this day, Sharpton refuses to recant his unspeakable slander or to apologize for his role in the odious affair.

1991: A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and antisemitic riots erupt. Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire. At Gavin's funeral he rails against the "diamond merchants" -- code for Jews -- with "the blood of innocent babies" on their hands. He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, "No justice, no peace." A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting "Kill the Jews!" and stabbed to death.

1995: When the United House of Prayer, a large black landlord in Harlem, raises the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, Freddy's white Jewish owner is forced to raise the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensues; Sharpton uses it to incite racial hatred. "We will not stand by," he warns malignantly, "and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business." Sharpton's National Action Network sets up picket lines; customers going into Freddy's are spat on and cursed as "traitors" and "Uncle Toms." Some protesters shout, "Burn down the Jew store!" and simulate striking a match. "We're going to see that this cracker suffers," says Sharpton's colleague Morris Powell. On Dec. 8, one of the protesters bursts into Freddy's, shoots four employees point-blank, then sets the store on fire. Seven employees die in the inferno. [emphasis added]

Al Sharpton's words were not "distorted and misused"--actually his words were themselves distorted and abusive.

Al Sharpton lecturing others to be 'passionate but not poisonous' is an outrageous insult to those who were killed and injured in Tucson--and the Washington Post has no business giving a soapbox to the unrepentant Sharpton.

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