{"id":7057754,"date":"2026-09-05T17:38:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/you-should-talk-to-thomas-jackson-sometime\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:38:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:38:40","slug":"you-should-talk-to-thomas-jackson-sometime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7057754","title":{"rendered":"You should talk to Thomas Jackson sometime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Every now and then, in this jaded world of politics, you run into someone who reminds you what things are supposed to be like.<\/p>\n<p>They remind you that politics is, ultimately, supposed to be about serving others. Working as an elected lawmaker is supposed to be a higher calling\u2014it\u2019s supposed to be a job in which you take pride not in how many headlines you make, but in how many people in your town, your district, your county or your state you helped.<\/p>\n<p>If you need that reminder, you should talk for a little while with Thomas Jackson.<\/p>\n<p>The 77-year-old state representative from Thomasville has served House District 68 since 1994. Everyone in town knows him. People from all around\u2014even in neighboring House districts and even folks in the other party\u2014call him with their problems.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson always picks up. Always hears them out. Always tries to help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never dreamed of being in politics,\u201d said Jackson, who has worked in public education and served as a minister. \u201cBut to think about it now, these years later, the people entrusted me back then (in 1994), and I\u2019ve been there, been a voice for them. And you know, if you call me, I don\u2019t ask whether they\u2019re Democrats or Republicans. I try to help. This district is divided and they call me from the other district and, hey, I\u2019m a voice. I\u2019m trying to help people and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson is getting a lot of calls these days from folks who need help.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>House District 68 has been hit harder than most by the economic downturn and pressure on cattle farmers. The local hospital closed in 2024 after several years of scraping by. That has left Thomasville residents traveling about 20 miles to Grove Hill for the nearest hospital. The closest hospital with a labor and delivery unit is more than an hour away in Selma.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs haven\u2019t exactly been a friend to the folks in the district, either. Jackson said local farmers have struggled mightily with limited markets and fluctuating prices. Local cattle farmers have it even tougher, and Trump\u2019s recent announcement that the U.S. would import 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef didn\u2019t help matters.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson has done as much as he can to help.<\/p>\n<p>He has pushed for Medicaid expansion and help for rural hospitals, co-sponsoring several bills. He also serves on the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee, and last year he pushed through legislation he sponsored creating an agricultural investment program to help local farmers survive unexpected downturns.<\/p>\n<p>Those investment programs have been the only reason some family farms still exist.<\/p>\n<p>The crazy thing is that Jackson knows many of the people he has helped over the years aren\u2019t voting for him. He\u2019s a Democrat, after all, and self-identified conservatives can\u2019t bring themselves to cross the aisle. Even for a man who crosses it without a second thought to help them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever made any difference to me which party someone belongs to when they call and ask me for help or to tell me about their problem,\u201d Jackson said during a recent interview on the Alabama Politics This Week podcast. \u201cI\u2019m there to work for all the people. That\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If that sounds too good to be true, or like some talking point a politician has pulled out of his pocket to endear himself to voters, you should learn a little more about Jackson. Because the Democrat-Republican aisle isn\u2019t the biggest gap he has crossed to help people.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson was born in the late 1940s. He grew up an hour from Selma and right smack dab in the middle of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think about growing up in this community as a kid, you know, and I grew up under Jim Crow\u2014separate and unequal. So I\u2019ve seen a lot of change. Now, I\u2019m representing the children of some of those people that stood against us back in the (1960s).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Think about that for a minute.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the farms Jackson travels to, some of the calls he receives\u2014they\u2019re from the descendants of folks who fought like hell to keep Jackson and his family from having basic rights. They\u2019re the family members of people who forced him, as Jackson joked, \u201cto go in the back door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It seems impossible that Jackson doesn\u2019t hold a grudge against them. That he doesn\u2019t harbor some ill will.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s just not who he is.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been through a few things over the years,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut we love one another. And that\u2019s the greatest thing that I\u2019ve seen that our nation has fallen away from\u2014that is caring for one another. We\u2019re so divisive, you know, and if you\u2019re not in a billionaire club, you\u2019re not a person that they care about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in Matthew 25, taking care of the least of these, the vulnerable, you know, the misfortunate, those who have a tough time. That\u2019s our mission. It\u2019s to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take care of the sick. Have places for them to lay their head. That\u2019s what I\u2019m about. The people. We have to love one another. That\u2019s the greatest thing\u2014love. It\u2019s more powerful than hate. It will always win out. Love will always win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m telling you\u2014you really should talk to Thomas Jackson sometime.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then, in this jaded world of politics, you run into someone who reminds you what things are supposed to be like. They remind you that politics is, ultimately, supposed to be about serving others. Working as an elected lawmaker is supposed to be a higher calling\u2014it\u2019s supposed to be a job in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7057755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[12750,13394,12795,15919,5973,70450,3061,7455,219979],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7057754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-alabama","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-farmers","tag-jackson","tag-rural-alabama","tag-talk","tag-thomas","tag-thomas-jackson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You should talk to Thomas Jackson sometime - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7057754\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You should talk to Thomas Jackson sometime - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every now and then, in this jaded world of politics, you run into someone who reminds you what things are supposed to be like. 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