Jackson Free Press

Rev. Cletus: "Welcome back to the weekly radio broadcast of the Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church Show. I have a reminder for our financially and health-insurance-challenged, 80-plus senior citizens who are unable to vote because, in the old days, issues of race, class, poverty, and oppression produced improper documentation or certificate of birth: 'Tell your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to vote!'

"It's a shame. Grandma can't vote in 2008, just because she was birthed by a mid-wife in 1928. Before I close the show, I want Sista Encouragement, the church's female version of Joel Osteen, to share a good word with my listeners, and shed a bright light of 'Barack Obama' hope during this dim and dismal period of our daily living."

Sista Encouragement: "I know you have been drenching your crying towel, sobbing over your personal and economic woes. I know you have lost your dignity and self-respect. I know you feel like the elderly lady who fell and couldn't get up. I know some folk want to make you the scapegoat. But that's alright!

"I believe that we-the-people-who-also-matter can retrieve the joy that was taken from us over the past eight years, especially if we get up off our behinds, go to the polls and vote for the right person. I compare ol' Job's situation in the Bible to your dilemma today. The devil made Job lose his job, but the Lawd hired Job back.

"Keep hope alive!"