Let me say up front that I respect Mayor Bill Bell. When I first became a reporter for The Durham Sun in 1985 my beat was county government. At the time, Bell was chairman of the Board of Commissioners and was an exemplary public official. But his statements yesterday at Duke University’s 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration service show why Durham, in the past 25 years, hasn’t been able to get its act together.
As a newspaper reporter and editor I always maintained, when the public would criticize us for covering controversies, that you can’t solve problems unless you know they’re there. If you sweep them under the rug, they just fester and get worse. Well, yesterday Bell was holding the corner of Durham’s carpet up and brushing briskly with the broom. This from The Herald-Sun:
Bell went on to use the theme of Sunday’s event at Duke Chapel, “Come to the Table,” to support his belief that Durham is a city that prides itself on racial diversity. At the same, he did rebut critics who believe the city’s demographics are a sign of racism.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “We have our differences. But in Durham, we struggle openly, in a healthy microcosm of citizenship and democracy.”
I’ve lived in Durham since 1981, except for an 18-month sojourn to Richmond, and this is not the Durham I and most people know. Bell has fallen into the trap of refusing to condemn what needs condemning. In doing so, he enables the outrageous behavior and substandard government that Durham taxpayers must endure.
This “hands across the sea” and “kumbaya” approach is not going to change Durham’s image as a national laughing stock. Responsible officials, black and white, need to admit Durham’s problem — an irresponsible core of demagogic black leaders (witness the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People over the past 20 years) and their equally irresponsible white leftist rabble rousers (as exemplified by the notorious pot bangers and the People’s Alliance political PAC) willing to tear this community apart for the sake of patronage and ideology.
The sad fact is, though, that Bell would no longer be mayor if he did that. Nor would any other elected official be re-elected after honestly discussing Durham’s problems. Instead, they call our dysfunction a sign of vibrant diversity and true democracy. If that’s so, why is the nation laughing at us?
