North Carolina Newspapers

2A NEWS/The Charlotte Post Thursday, August 7, 1997 - Belk Gantt Senate field gets color Seems like a fight nearly broke out...No not at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club....but the NAACP meeting. When a young member rose to speak he was told he could not by Allied Alexander, who was chairing the meeting. Fly’s not sure why he was chair ing the meeting since the Rev. Conrad Pridgen is supposed to be ■ president of the local chapter. More on that later. So when the young man insisted he be given a fair chance to speak in a supposedly open meeting, the branch security officer said, “I’ll . put your (expletive deleted) out of here.” A dozen roses to anyone who can guess the reply to that manly challenge. Thanks and congratulations to the little old lady in the comer whose correct answer was “Put me out!” Cooler heads prevailed a bit quicker than the 'liiesday Morning crowd and no blows were thrown. Pity. Fly missed the Holyfield-’iyson fiasco. • While we’re rolling on the NAACP tip. Fly’s spies got a peep at the Alexander brothers, Kelly and Alfred, lunching last Friday at 300 East restaurant with none other than Terry Belk, the local’s political action chair. Fly has heard the Alexanders are pushing Belk to run for Kelly’s old job as president of the state NAACP conference. Kelly Alexander resigned from the post last year after questions were raised about his handling of nearly $600,000 in state confer ence funds. 'The national chapter has barred Alexander from hold ing any NAACP office for 10 years. Joining Belk on the Alexanders’ state slate will be none other than Linda Crite-Gaines, who replaced David Howard as local chapter treasurer in Jtme when Howard resigned. Crite-Gaines will run for treasurer. Fly hears. She was the paid bookkeeper under Kelly Alexander’s tenure at state presi dent and dining the time he allegedly misspent so much of the people’s moolah. Talk about reloading. • Word has it the long-anticipat ed take over the faltering McDonald’s Cafeteria could come by the end of the month. Seems like the godfather, Harvey Gantt, heads a team of investors buying the restaurant and hotel complex. Floyd Young of FDY Catering b will run the restaurant and reportedly will not keep any of the 30 or so staffers. Gantt beat out a pro posal that would have put Ron Goodwin of the uptown Renaissance Place in command of the westside land mark built by John McDonald. Goodwin, by the way, is going to fix up the Renaissance since his McDonald’s bid came up short. . Fly’s spies heard the Gantt cartel . was about $700,(XX) shy of what the big money boys wanted for the whole ball of wax. • Speakin ‘o Gantt, Harvey’s daughter Sonja is coming back to ■ town as a teevee anchor. You go, girl. WCNC, which is perpetually dead last in Charlotte’s three-sta tion news derby, hired Sonja to boost sagging ratings. A.H. Belo, WCNC’s parental guidance unit, doled out some long green to get girlfnend back finm WGN in the Windy City, so she’ll make some major ends. Whether that’s enough to make WCNC respectable, now that’s another question. Fly has a suggestion: Get more air time for your best See FLY on page 3A Continued from page 1A he said. “D.G. is in to stay and D.G. is in to win. (Jur position is that D.G. is the strongest candi date with the ethics and the integrity and the vision and the values it takes to win. D.G. is a candidate all Democrats who would have to run in 1998 statewide would be proud to have at the top of the ticket. That’s something voters wiU be focusing on.” “It is going to be an exciting campaign. And we are very much looking forward to it.” Davis said most local blacks thought Scarborough would someday run for mayor of Charlotte. “All of us had speculat ed that she would be the first black female mayoral candidate,” Davis said. Some political analysts wonder if Scarborough’s entry into the race will create a replay of the Democrats failed Gantt vs. Helms races. “Ella and D.G. can commisser- ate alter primary night, after the moderate to liberal wing of the party loses,” quipped one veteran analyst who requested anonymi ty- State Democratic leaders recruited Martin, 56, to attract moderate and minority support, the analyst said. Conventional thinking is a moderate white male, aged 50 or so, is needed to attract the white male voters required to win a Senate race in North Carolina. “Ella will eliminate that as the plan,” the analyst said. “Assuming D.G. stays, they split the moderate-to-liberal part of the party and a more conserva tive candidate is likely to be able to be the nominee. Harvey got the moderate-to-liberal iving. If there is a split in the moderate-to-liber al wing, no moderate is going to win.” Gantt proved moderates and liberal support could win pri maries, but failed twice to beat Helms. “You’ve stiU got to pull votes from white men,” the analyst said. “The Democrats tried that tivice with Harvey and it didn’t work. There’s a strong move in the party to look for another can didate. 'The impetus in the party is away finm her toward a white male in his mid-50s. “But voters may not go for that,” the analyst admitted, adding that Scarborough has some strengths and could win enough black and female votes to get through a crowded primary field. “EUa certainly brings a lot of strength to the Democratic Party,” Bibbs said. “From what I know of her record on City Council of Charlotte, she has been a strong voice on a lot of dif ferent issues. “As to her viability as a candi date., I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see in the primary.” Assuming a moderate voter turnout, 35 percent of voters will be black and she could easily win 65 percent or more of the black vote and a sizable amount of the women’s vote. Scarborough has as good a chance as anyone right now to pull out a primary victory, but the analyst predicted, “little or no shot in the general election.” The analyst compared the Democratic dilemma to that of the Republicans in the 1996 pres idential race. “Do you reward a longtime faithful candidate or go with a new face. 'The Republicans chose to reward Dole and lost. Ella is a new face.” “The big question is what does she bring to the table that Harvey didn’t,” the analyst said. “In my opinion she brings less. Harvey had the ability to raise large sums of money.” The big question in the primary and the general election is money. Edwards is expected to have deep pockets and Martin raised large sums in a narrow loss in the 1984 congressional race against former 9th District Rep. Alex McMillan. Faircloth, a millionaire hog farmer, already has raised more than $800,(XX) and can be expect ed to spend millions to keep his seat. Analysts predict the cost of the Democratic primary alone vriU start at $1 million and could soar higher. Continued from page 1A we’ve got a long way to go.” In the weeks since Hall offered his one-sentence resolution sug gesting that Congress apologize for slaveiy, it has become acutely evident that the notion of forgive ness is a powerfiil thing in America. Few may agree with the idea of offering up some kind of national repentance, but every one has a strong reason why. “An apology is a much more complex and powerful phenome non than most people realize,” said Susan Heftier, a clinical psy chologist in Denver. Hall’s proposal has drawn strong reactions. Many whites say an apology needlessly dredges up a horrible but long-closed chapter of history, while ignoring the nation's vast racial progress. Many blacks, meanwhile, see an apology vrithout some form of compensation as hollow symbol ism. “An apology by definition admits one’s ovm responsibility for wrongdoing,” said Susan T. Fiske, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “An apology for slavery would say it may not have been me but it was my people or my government that did this and we now see that it was really a crime and a sin. It is potentially healing. It shares responsibility for ending racism and it acknowledges that slavery has some relevance to today.” Shortly after Hall’s proposal. President Clinton expressed some interest in embracing the idea, saying that “an apology, under the right circumstances, those things ctm be quite important.” Subsequently, Clinton has been noncommittal on the subject. Yet the power of an apology has not been lost on Washington. In 1988, Congress apologized and paid reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned in the United States during World War n. Two years later. Congress apologized to uranium miners and those contaminated by nuclear tests in Nevada. And in 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for the U.S. role in overthrowing the Hawaiian government a century earlier. Earlier this year, Clinton apolo gized to the victims of Cold War radiation treatments and to the black men who were left untreat ed for syphilis in the infamous Tbskegee experiment. But an apology for slavery is dif ferent, some aa^, because ft cuts so close to the nation’s black- white divide. And indeed, public sentiment toward the idea varies sharply depending on one’s race. A pair of recent Gallup polls found that two out of three whites oppose the idea of a congressional apology, while two out of three blacks support the proposal. “It raises aU sorts of emotions,” said Andrew Hacker, a Queens College (N.Y.) political scientist. “Many white people don’t want to hear any more about obligations that have not been fulfilled. People say, We have done every thing we have to do. We had affir mative action. We supported civil rights. Don’t call us anymore.’ I sense a lot of that feeling out there.” While the idea has found grass roots support among African Americans, it has received little public backing from prominent African American leaders. Only three black members of Congress are among the resolution’s 18 co sponsors (although others are supportive), and many prominent civil rights leaders see the mea sure as a cheap political gesture. “It is like you drive over some body with a car, leave the body mangled, then you decide to come back later to apologize with no commitment to help them get on their feet,” said Jesse L. Jackson. “There is something empty in that. It is just more race enter tainment." Indeed, many African Americans believe that the nation should pay monetary reparations to the descendants of slaves. For years, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, has sponsored legislation to establish a committee to study reparations. Also, the NAACP has passed resolutions in support of reparations, including one at its national convention last month. But the idea has never gotten anywhere. Some Clinton advisers, wary of criticism finm both the left and the right, think the country is not ready to apologize for slavery. “My view is that the moral force of an apology depends upon understanding. But people dis agree sharply about the extent of racism today and the relationship of it to slavery,” said Christopher Edley, a Harvard law professor who advises Clinton on racial matters. j D & R Elite Footwear r [iLlMiM 1' 1 Speci^lWag kilUpdb Footww - Mauri and Oth«« 1 WasMa'a and Chtbfavn'i Clothinf 1 Dennis Hurdle: President 1 William Pittman: Vice President j 3401 South Blvd. Unit G J Charlotte, N.C. 28209 1 (704)521-8200 • FAX (704)521-8275 1 Store Hours: 10 - 6 Mon. - Sat. Papertown Has Supplies ForAU Celebrations Luaus Showers Birthdays Family Reunions 4420 Monroe Rd.* 342-5815 E Professional African Hair Braiding and Weaving ALL STYLES OF BRAIDS Official Braider for Andrea Stinson MtKMtex cUzcouMt^ ‘P’tee Synthetic • “Ptec Maintenance 4801 N. 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Call the "Bill Scurry" Team (704) 593-2264 JOHNS ' i SMITH UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF LIFELONG LEARNING and THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION announce an EVENING ON-CAMPUS TEACHER LICENSURE PROGRAM(TLP) in the following six discipline areas: K-6 lucation ‘Engli ’ Mathematics •Elementry Education 9-12 •English •Social Studies K-12 •Health •Physical Education TLP is designed for adults who already have a four-year degree, and now wish to pursue “Teacher Licensure” in order to teach in North Carolina schools and in other reciprocal states. FALL ‘97 SEMESTER CLASSES START AUGUST 22,1997 Registration: August 19- 29, 1997 •TUE/THUR 6:00-7:25PM PSY-239T “EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY” ' SATURDAYS: 8:(K)-9:55PM EDU-220T “EARLY EXPERIENCES IN TEACHER EDUCATION” 10:50 AM-1:30PM PS Y-237T “PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE” RM EDU-201 RM HUM-110 RM HUM-110 TO APPLY, CALL/WRITE/FAX: Division of Lifelong Learning 100 Beatties Ford Road • Charlotte, North Carolina 28216 • (704)378-1251/1244 • FAX (704)378-3543