NAACP TO HONOR FORMER WHITE HOUSE "GREEN CZAR"
Washington (CNN) -- While Van Jones may have left the White House under a cloud, the NAACP says that's not his whole story.
The group considers him a pioneering hero for the environment and civil rights -- so much so that it is awarding him one of its highest honors Friday: an NAACP Image Award. It's a move that is just becoming public now, which is sure to stoke the fire from Jones critics.
Jones resigned in September 2009 from his position on the Council on Environmental Quality, under a firestorm of criticism over a petition he had signed and his comments about Republicans.
The Obama administration's "green czar" helped coordinate government agencies focused on delivering millions of green jobs to the ailing U.S. economy.
Jones said he was the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" based on "lies and distortions."
Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO, said he's not concerned about criticism the NAACP might face over honoring the controversial Jones.
"We care about getting the best ideas, the best minds and Van is one of them," Jealous said. "What should be controversial is we pushed one of the greatest minds to the side in this country when we needed him most."
In an opinion piece on CNN.com, Jealous calls Jones "an American treasure," and says he might be "the most misunderstood man in America."
"The real Van Jones story is about how a young leader became the father of the green jobs movement. In response to a longstanding jobs crisis in Oakland, California, he initiated the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, one of the nation's first job training programs targeting low-income people for work in the solar and green industries. This program has become a renowned model for numerous initiatives that are now up and running across America," Jealous says in the piece.
"In America, we ultimately judge people on what they are doing today for tomorrow, not for what they did yesterday."
In a White House statement announcing his resignation, Jones said, "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
He came to Washington to "fight for others, not for myself. ... I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future," Jones said.
The decision followed an uproar over a petition Jones signed in 2004 calling for an investigation into whether government officials deliberately allowed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to occur.
In a statement during the the week before stepping down, Jones said of the petition on the Web site 911truth.org: "I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."
An administration source said that Jones had not carefully reviewed the language in the petition before signing.
Jones has also come under fire for comments he made, also before his White House job, including those in a video that can be seen on YouTube. In it, he uses a vulgar expression to describe Republicans.
In 2005, Jones was quoted in the East Bay Express as describing the impact that the acquittals in the police beating case of Rodney King in 1992 had on him. "By August, I was a Communist," he says in the article, describing his sense of radicalization at the time.
In his statement, Jones said, "If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."
One of the most prominent conservative voices condemning Jones was FOX TV host Glenn Beck.
Jones is a co-founder of colorofchange.org, a group that pressed advertisers to boycott Beck's program after Beck called Obama a racist.
Jones' appointment heightened criticisms of the appointment of so-called "czars," officially called presidential advisers, to positions within the administration that aren't subject to congressional oversight or Senate confirmation.
The group considers him a pioneering hero for the environment and civil rights -- so much so that it is awarding him one of its highest honors Friday: an NAACP Image Award. It's a move that is just becoming public now, which is sure to stoke the fire from Jones critics.
Jones resigned in September 2009 from his position on the Council on Environmental Quality, under a firestorm of criticism over a petition he had signed and his comments about Republicans.
The Obama administration's "green czar" helped coordinate government agencies focused on delivering millions of green jobs to the ailing U.S. economy.
Jones said he was the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" based on "lies and distortions."
Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO, said he's not concerned about criticism the NAACP might face over honoring the controversial Jones.
"We care about getting the best ideas, the best minds and Van is one of them," Jealous said. "What should be controversial is we pushed one of the greatest minds to the side in this country when we needed him most."
In an opinion piece on CNN.com, Jealous calls Jones "an American treasure," and says he might be "the most misunderstood man in America."
"The real Van Jones story is about how a young leader became the father of the green jobs movement. In response to a longstanding jobs crisis in Oakland, California, he initiated the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, one of the nation's first job training programs targeting low-income people for work in the solar and green industries. This program has become a renowned model for numerous initiatives that are now up and running across America," Jealous says in the piece.
"In America, we ultimately judge people on what they are doing today for tomorrow, not for what they did yesterday."
In a White House statement announcing his resignation, Jones said, "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
He came to Washington to "fight for others, not for myself. ... I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future," Jones said.
The decision followed an uproar over a petition Jones signed in 2004 calling for an investigation into whether government officials deliberately allowed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to occur.
In a statement during the the week before stepping down, Jones said of the petition on the Web site 911truth.org: "I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."
An administration source said that Jones had not carefully reviewed the language in the petition before signing.
Jones has also come under fire for comments he made, also before his White House job, including those in a video that can be seen on YouTube. In it, he uses a vulgar expression to describe Republicans.
In 2005, Jones was quoted in the East Bay Express as describing the impact that the acquittals in the police beating case of Rodney King in 1992 had on him. "By August, I was a Communist," he says in the article, describing his sense of radicalization at the time.
In his statement, Jones said, "If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."
One of the most prominent conservative voices condemning Jones was FOX TV host Glenn Beck.
Jones is a co-founder of colorofchange.org, a group that pressed advertisers to boycott Beck's program after Beck called Obama a racist.
Jones' appointment heightened criticisms of the appointment of so-called "czars," officially called presidential advisers, to positions within the administration that aren't subject to congressional oversight or Senate confirmation.
so Sorry Siebra, my beautiful daguhter but mom disapprove of this as being a step in the right direction when it comes to getting us equality, this is going to proe moe division until COLOR OF CHANGE IS GIVEN PUBLIC RECOGNITION AS THE 21ST CENTURY NAACP...
and I only ask you to ask your own self this question...If your best friend(s) turns their back on you because you were on the front lines in protecting our president's back and after someone else came in and protected both you and the president would you be able to and with a clear conscious allow that same friend(s) to talk full credit for helpig you in your time of need when they refused to even acknowledge at you time of crisis that you even even existed much less going out to get help for you in the HOOD or even out side of the hood...
NOW SIEBRA BECAUSE I KNOW THAT YOU ARE YOUR OWN PERSON AND IS NOT DEPENDANTANT OF THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPION TO DEFINE YOU BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND HOW HARD YOU TRY FOR BLACK UNITY....THAT YOU LIKE ME WILL REGECT THIS LATEST RUSE FROM THE NAACP TO GET FUNDINGS FROM THE HOOD BECAUSE UNLESS IT MAKES FULL BLOWN MASS MEDIA FRENZY THAT YOU WILL LOOK ON THEM AS NEEDING EQUAL JUSTICE they are (today) the last place to go for help, PEROID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...t
herefore now you have gone bankrupt and can not even keep a straw man as a president of the NAACP the 20th century long enough to help you even get attention, money or power from those in or out of the HOOH!!!!
NOw for all who do not know this...Van Jones is out of trying to protect our presidents because - and only because he did such a great job..the owner of FOX is who gave V.J. his need public start and public recognition that got him being qualified to become the Green ZhAR (now lie to your self that you knew this all the time!!!!!!!!!!we do tend to lie about ever thing else in order to keep Jim Crown alive and well)what brought the works in green jobs as a house hold word???...the owner of the Fox empire the owner of Fox cable news the same people aht Al KKsharpton is protesting in N.Y....
FOX went after Jones as a cover-up for they had to stop Jones because he was such a succes with his intorductyion of the Cash for Clunkers program and, because the organization that Jones co-created weh after Glenn Beck with such success/ COLOR OF CHANGE...
He is our of trying to help our president succeed only because we are such perfEct (PUBLIC ACCEPTED )supporters of Jim CROW BECAUSE we have no idea past seeing what the media wants us to know until you have no way of knowing that if the NAACP hAd even given recognigion to Van Jones he would stilL be there RIGHT BESIDES OUR PRESIDENT and America would be on the + side of jobs and not in tHE - where JIM CROW has us...
and as long as we see this as a positive , THIS MOVE BY THE naacp our president will never be a successful president and All because he is a brillient man and not the "angry man" they lookinG for due to miseducation on those who have black skin...WAKE UP....
noTICE HOW HIS ASSOCIATION WITH wRIGHT DID NOT BRING HIM DOWN THEN THEY WENT FROM HIM BEING A CHRISTIAN IN A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY TO BEING A MUSLIM AND WHEN THIS DID NOT WORK THEY WENT TO MARXIS, COMMUNIST, ECT. AND THIS STILL HAS NOT HIT THE HOOD WHAT IS ACTULLY GOING ON(I AM NOT SMILING)