[NYTr] More on Jane Jackson, US Activist Buried in Cuba

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Earlier article:
Oakland Calif Activist Jane Jackson Buried in Santiago de Cuba
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071001/069643.html

sent by Ed Pearl

Berkeley Daily Planet - Oct 5, 2007

Jane Jackson, Rights Activist, 1934-2007

By Libby McMahon

Rights activist and devout Episcopalian Jane Jackson passed away
peacefully Sept. 26 in her beloved Santiago de Cuba. She is survived in
the U.S. by her two daughters and their families, by her daughter and
her family in Havana, and by all those whose lives she made better
during her lifetime of struggle for the rights of people everywhere.
Jane was a brilliant, tenacious, determined champion of justice. It is
impossible to list all the world's, the country's and her
neighborhood's problems to which Jane gave her time, energy, money and
love trying to solve. 

To name just a few, Jane fought for civil rights in the United States,
ending the Vietnam War, ending apartheid in South Africa, human rights
for people with AIDS, and enabling the fullest possible participation
for people with disabilities. She strove to prevent and then to end the
Iraq War. She stayed up nights finding ways to ease the burden borne by
Cubans. She fought for the rights of prisoners, people in nursing
homes, medical marijuana users and so many more, including many people
she just happened to meet who needed help. 

Born to an affluent family in 1934, Jane's initial struggle was with
dyslexia, which complicated but could never stop her logical mind from
satisfying her irrepressible drive to learn. As a young woman she began
to suffer bouts of dizziness, diagnosed decades later as Meniere's
Syndrome. Adopting the wheelchair for which she is now best known, she
plastered it with social justice bumper stickers and globetrotted for
the next 30 years, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the
afflicted. 

So, whenever you see a curb cut, or better yet four curb cuts in the
same intersection, whenever you see a person in a wheelchair using a
lift on a public bus, or riding BART because the elevator actually
worked, Jane is one of the people to thank. We will miss her
unavoidable, undeniable presence, usually found on the front lines
wherever people are struggling for justice. 

A celebration of her life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday Nov. 17 at
St. James Episcopal Church, 1540 12th Ave., Oakland. Stories, memories
and other expressions may be sent to janejackson7555 at aol.com or to Jane
Jackson, 275 E. 12th St., Oakland 94606. 

Donations in her name may be made to Episcopal Relief and Development
c/o St. James Episcopal Church, 1540 12th Ave., Oakland, CA 94606, or
to the donor's favorite charity. 

With very minimal overhead, Episcopal Relief & Development funds
immediate crisis relief and a wide variety of long-term development
projects identified by local people in communities around the world who
will directly benefit by these projects. Housing and water system
construction, job training programs and many other projects use local
labor and materials, generating a beneficial economic ripple effect in
the communities where the money is spent. Its work is unrelated to
differences within the Episcopal community on the issue of gender
rights, except that those differences may hinder Relief and
Development's ability to raise funds for its work. Thank you for
considering a donation to this important organization. 

[Libby McMahon is Jane Jackson's daughter.]