Newspaper Page Text
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August 26, 2004
National World
Blacks offer lukewarm support for N.J. governor
By JAMAL E. WATSON
Special to the NNPA
NEW YORK (NNPA) -
Gloria White says she isn't
vindictive, but these days
the Trenton mother of
three is glowing over the
resignation of New Jersey
Governor James E.
McGreevey, who said that
he would step down from
office in November
because he is gay and had a
sexual relationship with
another man outside of his
marriage.
“'m not a mean-spirited
person, but I strongly
believe that what goes
Experts fear Hurricane
Charley aftermath may prove
as dangerous as the storm itself
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press Writer
PUNTA GORDA, Flori
da (AP) — Health officials
are worried there could be
more deaths and injuries in
the aftermath of Hurricane
Charley than during the
storm itself. The hurricane
caused billions of dollars in
damage across Florida, and
power outages and debris
are creating hazards for
residents.
At least 21 U.S. deaths
have been linked to the
storm. Charley also killed
four people in Cuba and
one in Jamaica.
“We’re seeing lacera
tions, injuries post-hurri
cane,” said critical care
nurse Karen Mulvaney. “A
lot of people are coming
here now %ecausc people
are now returning to their
homes.”
In addition to injuries,
residents are being sick
ened by eating spoiled
food and contaminated
water. They are skipping
their prescription drugs
and, with no air condition
ing and with window
screens blown away, expos
ing themselves to mosqui
toes carrying diseases such
as West Nile virus.
On Wednesday, August
18 Sanibel Isf;nd was
reopened to permanent
residents for the first time
since it was evacuated
before the hurricane.
Roads had been cleared of
storm debris but there was
no power or drinkable
water on the barrier island
of about 6,000 residents.
Sanibel Mayor Marty
Harrity said most of the
One-year suspension recommended for judge who wore racial costume
By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -
A white Louisiana judge
who appeared at a Hal
loween party in shackles, an
afro wig and blackface
makeup last year should be
suspended for a year with
out pay, a state commission
said Tuesday, August 17.
The recommendation by
the Judiciary Commission
of Louisiana goes to the
state Supreme Court, which
will make the final decision
on the punishment for
around will eventually
come around,” said White,
56, who was one of thou
sands of New Jersey resi
dents who lashed out at
McGreevey last year when
he publicly chastised poet
Amiri Baraka and then
fired him from his post as
the state’s poet laureate
after Baraka wrote what
some have called an “anti-
Semitic” poem.
“I'm stifi mad at what he
(McGreevey) did to Bara
ka, so 1 have very little
sympathy for him art this
time,” said White, who has
followed Baraka’s work
closely over the years.
damage to the island’s
homes was cosmetic,
involving missing shingles
and shutters and loss of
shrubbery and other land
sca}lJ)ing.
“People are smiling -
they’re getting the oppor
tuniti; to come back and
see their homes,” Harrity
said by phone.
Insurers are likely to pay
an estimated $7.4Y billion
in' claims for ‘damage to
homes, businesses an§ per
sonal possession such as
cars, Insurance Informa
tion Institute chief econo
mist Bob Hartwig said
Wednesday, August 18.
That estimate doesn’t
included uninsured prop
erty and flood damage or
huge agricultural losses.
I% the estimate holds,
Charley would be the sec
ond most expensive U.S.
hurricane after 1992’
Andrew, which caused
$15.5 billion in insured
losses, he said. State offi
cials had estimated earlier
that damage to insured
homes alone could be as
much as sll billion.
About 493,000 people
remained without power,
state officials said, hold
ing to predictions it
could take weeks to fully
restore electricity. Nearly
100,000 still lacked local
phone service.
Michael Brown, director
of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, said
Wednesday that Charley’s
233 kph (145 mph) wind
could have crestroyed
even more homes if not
for the stronger building
codes enactef after Hur
Timothy Ellender, a state
district judge in Terrebonne
Parish, southwest of New
Orleans.
“Judge Ellender’s integrity
and his ability to be fair and
impartial towards African-
Americans who appear
before his court as defen
dants in criminal and other
proceedings will be forever
in doubt,” the commission
said in a 26-page report.
“Every decision he makes
and judgment he renders
concerning an African-
American may be ques-
AUGUSTA FOCUS
“God just does not like
ugly.”
Reaction in the black
community to McGreevey’s
resignation has been
mixed, with some blacks
calling for the governor’s
ouster, while otEers have
remained staunch support
ers of the 47-year-old
politician, who quickly
rose through the ranks of
New Jersey politics.
“Family members and
friends stick together dur
ing tough times, and I con
sicfcr myself a friend of Jim
McGreevey,” said State
Senator Wayne R. Bryant
(D-Camden), an African-
ricane Andrew 12 years
ago over the objection of
some contractors, who
said they were too costly.
He described seeing new
buildings that were rela
tively undamaged next to
older buildings that were
destroyed.
“Governor (Jeb) Bush
said it best — If anyone in
Florida starts minimizing
the building code, that
idea should have been
obliterated by Charley,”
Brown said.
The official death toll
rose from 19 to 20 Tues
day when an 86-year-old
man who had evacuated
his home fell and died in
a motel, state officials
said. The state count did
not immediately include
a carbon monoxide death,
confirmed Wednesday,
August 18 by Lee County
officials, of a man run
ning a gasoline-powered
generator ¢in a shed
attached to his home
since losing power in the
storm.
For thousands of Floridi
ans, Tuesday, August 17,
was a day when services
cut off by Charley’s ram
page Friday, August 20
were being gradually —
and sporadically -
restored. Federal disaster
assistance money began
flowing, state officials
cracked down on price
gouging and postal work
ers handed out mail. Free
food, ice and water were
distributed across the
region.
tioned and second
guessed.”
Ellender was not immedi
ately available for comment
when The Associated Press
called his office in Houma.
The commission said Ellen
der cooperated fully with its
investigation and made it
clear in testimony “that he
will take great care not to
exhibit racial bias or to pro
mote racial stereotypes in
the future.”
Accompanied by his wife,
who was dressed as a police
officer, Ellender showed up
American who chairs the
powerful Senate Budget
and Appropriations Com
mittee.
“Jim McGreevey'’s leader
ship has achieved many
good things and helped
many New Jerseyans
improve the quality of
their lives,” Bryant said.
“He can count on my sup
port and continued f}rlicnd—
ship throughout this diffi
cult time.”
Polls suggest that
African-Americans have
traditionally adhered to the
rrincié)lc that the personal
ife of a politician should
be separate from their
Bush adviser counsels patience
during “ups and downs” in Iraq
By BARRY SCHWEID
A¥‘ Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Defending President George
W. Bush’s foreign policies,
national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice coun
seled Americans to be “less
critical of every twist and
turn” in Iraq.
“We nceg to be more
patient with people who are
making those early steps”
towarc! a working multieth
nic democracy, Rice said
Thursday as U.S. troops
fought a bloody battle with
insurgents in the slums of
Baghfiad and Iraqi forces
searched for ways to subdue
insurgent militias in Nf)af
Rice said it took the Unit
ed States a long time to
achieve democratic goals.
And so far, said &ice, an
African-American, Iraqs
postwar leaders have not
made a compromise com
?arable to the one by the
ramers of the U.S. Consti
tution, who “made my
ancestors three-fifths of a
man.”
She was referring to the
provision in the éonstitu
tion that designated slaves
as three-fifths of a person in
calculating the population
of states for elections to
Congress. The slaves also
were denied the vote.
DemocracK does not hap
pen overnight, Rice said in
a speech and news confer
ence at the U.S. Institute of
Peace, a government-fund
chthink ta(ilkß ;
rompte a_question
about glose lzurds(-lin Iraq
who seek an independent
state, Rice said democracies
tend to lessen needs for a
“full break” between the
various ethnic groups in the
“country.
~ “If I'could say one thin
‘to all of us in the Uniteg
at the party last Halloween
dressed in a prison jumpsuit
and handcuffs borrowed
from the local sheriff, as
well as the afro wig.
“Judge Ellender testified
to the commission that
when his costume did not
provoke the amusement he
thought it would, his broth
er-in-law, dressed as ‘Buck
wheat’” from the ‘Little Ras
cals show, and wearing
blackface paint, offered the
judge some of the paint to
enhance his costume and to
try to garner more laughs,”
political duties, which is
why many unabashedly
supported l};rmcr President
Bifl Clinton during his
affair with White House
intern Monica Lewinsky
Even Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
quickly received a warm
embrace from blacks after
it became known that he
cheated on his wife and
fathered a child out of
wedlock.
But some say that the
lack of support for
McGreevey, wfio has said
that he is gay and had a
relationship with a man,
has much to do with the
uneasiness that many
States of America, who live
in a democracy that is 230
years old, it is that we need
to be both more patient
with Ecoplc who are mak
ing these early steps, less
critical of every twist and
turn, less certain that every
up and down is going to
collapse the process, and
more humble on about long
it has taken us to get to a
multiethnic democracy that
works,” Rice said.
The White House offi
cial, considered a potential
secretary of state if Bush
wins a second term, said
Americans ought to be “less
certain that every up and
down is going to collapse
the process.”
H}c)r appearance followed
a series of cable television
interviews in what appears
to be a campaign to employ
the usually offstage and
sometimes off-the-record
senior official as a spirited
campaign spokeswoman for
the president.
On the Arab-Israeli con
flict, Rice called for an
end to Israel’s “occupa
tion,” without specifying
whether she meant givin
up East Jerusalem and afi
o?the West Bank and the
Golan Heights on top of
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s planned with
drawal from Gaza.
The State Department,
meanwhile, indicated the
administration would
support Iragi Prime Min
ister Ayad Allawi if he
dccidcc( to direct Iraqi
forces to storm a mosque
in Najaf that insurgent
militia are using as a sanc
tuary.
“It’s unacceptable in a
democratic Iraq, in a sov
ereign Iraq, that groups
such as these take over
the commission report said.
“When asked if adding
the black-face paint resulted
in his getting more laughs,
Judge Ellender told the
commission “it was more
humorous, yes,” the report
said.
It was a private party but
it was held at a seafood
restaurant in view of other
patrons. The commission
said about 15 people were
present and testimony indi
cated that, except for a
black cook, everyone pres
ent was white.
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James E. McGreevey
blacks feel toward homo
sexuals.
Rev. Jacques DeGraff, a
political consultant who
See Governor, page 13A
holy sites, fire on inno
cents and arrogate for
themselves the power of
the central government,”
deputy spokesman Adam
Ereli saic{l.J
“Our role is to support
Prime Minister Allawi and
his government as they
work to establish govern
ment control over the ter
ritory of Iraq and against
those elements such as the
Mahdi militia who “are
intent on using violence
to pursue their objec
tives,” Ereli said.
He also read a statement
by Secretary of State
Colin Powe]}i, who was
away on vacation, mark
ing the first anniversary of
the bombing of U.N.
headquarters in Baghdad.
U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira
de Mello, a Brazilian
diplomat who Powell
cafied a “dear friend,” was
among the victims.
“The international com
munity will not be
deterred by the immoral
act of a year ago,” Powell
said. “TKe United States
remains steadfast in its
support for the United
Nations mission in Iraq.
We will continue to wofl(
side by side as partners.”
U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, at an
anniversary ceremony in
Geneva, Switzerland, said
the United States was con
ducting an investigation
of the attack and that *‘we
are still waiting for
answers.”’
“However long it takes,
I pray that the perpetra
tors are held to account
and do not get away with
this cold-bfooded mur
der,” Annan said.
Word of Ellender’s cos
tume reached Houma
NAACP leaders, then made
local, state and national
news. A complaint was filed
with court officials, result
ing in the commission’s
investigation. Ellender at
first called the resulting
furor “a tempest in a
teapot” but later, in testi
mony before the commis
sion, admitted that his
behavior had been offen
sive, the report said.
There was no indication
when the Supreme Court
would make its decision.