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USA Today/ - News, Sáb, 31 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Civil Rights)
Ex-Obama aide Van Jones is back with
new book
Van Jones started out as a political outsider, turned
briefly into a political insider -- in the White House, no
less -- and is now back to his roots.
"I'm doing what I've always done," Jones said during a
book tour interview. "Fight for justice."
After resigning his post as a presidential adviser in
2009 amid criticism from conservative activists, Jones
is organizing, speaking, and writing on behalf of efforts
to "re-energize" the base supporters who backed
President Obama's election in 2008.
His new book, to be released Tuesday, is called
Rebuild The Dream, which is also the name of a
"strategy and action center" that Jones founded in
2011.
The book is more political prescription than memoir,
but Jones does write about his brief 2009 tenure as
special adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and
Innovation at the White House Council on
Environmental Quality.
Conservative such as Glenn Beck, then at Fox News,
attacked Jones as an unelected "White House czar."
Jones was also accused of signing a so-called "truther"
petition accusing President George W. Bush of
involvement in 9/11, though Jones denied it and there
is no evidence he ever did.
On Sept. 6, 2009, Jones announced his resignation,
saying he didn't want to be a distraction from Obama's
agenda.
Now he is trying to push that agenda from the outside,
by seeking to better organize various progressive
movements that include the Occupy efforts, labor,
women, environmentalists, civil rights supporters, and
peace activists.
In the book Rebuild The Dream, Jones writes that his
aim is "to prepare citizens and community members at
the grassroots level to see their own power differently
-- and to exercise their own leadership more boldly.
Progress is the work of millions."
One goal is to break through the iron triangle of
"politicians, polls, and pundits" that dominate
discussion in Washington, D.C., Jones said in an
interview.
Speaking at a tea shop across Lafayette Square from
the White House where he once worked, Jones said
he still regards his government service as a great
honor.
"I didn't call them, they called me," Jones said. "You
don't turn the president's team down.
"When it was time to go," Jones added, "they didn't call
me -- I called them."
While some progressives are disappointed in
President Obama, Jones said he still "loves" him. "I do
not want a Tea Party president," he said.
But Obama's re-election "won't be enough," Jones
said. "You've got to re-energize the movements."
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