Saturday, November 29, 1997

It's refreshing to see leaders take a stand on principle

By JOY THOMPSON

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

We hear so much about public officials caving in to special interests, it is refreshing to see leaders take a stand on principle once in a while. In the past few weeks, I've noticed several positive examples of leadership in action.

My first kudos goes to Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon. Alarcon recently joined his fellow city council members in asking Mike Hernandez to resign. Following an embarrassing arrest, Hernandez has admitted to having a drug problem and recently pleaded guilty to a felony cocaine possession charge. He has since been placed in a drug diversion program. Despite all this, Hernandez feels he should remain in office.

What stands out about Alarcon's move is the fact that he, like Hernandez, is a Latino political leader. However, in this case he put principle ahead of sentimentality. I believe that, basically, an elected official who is using cocaine as an elected official should not remain in office, he said.

I applaud Alarcon for his candor and courage. Some people feel that you are not supposed to criticize another member of the same race or ethnic group, even if that person has committed a crime. To do so, they feel, is disloyal to that group of people. For example, when Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington, D.C., was caught abusing drugs on videotape in 1990, several African-Americans rallied around him. They argued that Barry was singled out by law enforcement officers because he was African-American. And given the opportunity in 1994, they swept him back into office.

I feel nothing displays disloyalty to a race more than setting a double standard for that race. Propping up wrongdoers as role models hurts the very people you claim to represent. Alarcon's decision to part ways with his Latino brother might have been an emotionally difficult, but it was the right decision.

In another admirable move, Myrlie Evers-Williams, chairwoman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is seeking the resignation of four national board members who have either admitted or been accused of financial misdeeds. One of those members is the Rev. Henry Lyons, who is facing a criminal investigation over his handling of the finances of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., which he heads. You might think an organization as prestigious as the NAACP would try to sweep this scandal under a rug to save face or to protect its high-profile members. But Evers-Williams, who took over the NAACP in the midst of scandal, is dealing with the problem head-on. As with Alarcon, her actions take courage, and her leadership should do much to restore the public's faith in the organization.

Finally, there was Los Angeles Mayor Bill Riordan's decision to block the City Council's decision to allow a gay sex club to continue operating in East Hollywood. Riordan didn't block the move on moral grounds, although he could have. His opposition focused on principle: The sex club, like other businesses and organizations before it, sought a variance in the zoning ordinance to allow it to operate near a school and residential area. Other organizations, including an Orthodox Jewish synagogue and a home for the mentally ill, had been denied. Oddly, the City Council made the sex club the exception to the zoning rules, and that wasn't fair.

The cynical will say all these officials, Riordan, Evers-Williams and Alarcon, were only acting in their own self-interests; that doing the right thing was a front for scoring points with the public. (Indeed, Alarcon is running for state Senate.) However, if doing the right thing pushes an official up a notch in the opinion polls and earns them votes, then so be it. We should reward people for showing good judgment and leadership. Our society needs such examples.

(Joy Thompson is an editorial writer for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. You can write to her at 604 Pine Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90844.)

(c) 1997, Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.).

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