There's no doubt that David Dinkins, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, has gained the respect of a large and diverse group of supporters - and deservedly so. But there's also little doubt that some voters are having second thoughts about Dinkins because of two notorious men who were briefly associated with his campaign. That's a mistake. Dinkins' reaction to these two should earn him more, not less, respect.
The men causing the problem are Sonny Carson, who recently described himself as "anti-white," and Jitu Weusi, who has a record of anti-Semitism. They managed to become active on the community level of the Dinkins campaign, where there are thousands of campaign workers, few of whom are known to the candidate. But as soon as Dinkins found out about these two, he forced them to resign. Still, despite Dinkins' swift and principled action and his long record of bringing people together, the campaign incident has left some people feeling uneasy about supporting him for mayor.
I suppose if anyone has reason to be uneasy over the names Sonny Carson and Jitu Weusi, I should be the one. Both of them first achieved notoriety some twenty years ago during the period of the 1968 teachers' strike when I was president ofNYC's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and I had some unpleasant experiences with their brand of racism. Weusi (then Leslie Campbell) "dedicated" an antiSemitic poem, allegedly written by a student, to me. And Carson was responsible for a number of nasty confrontations during that period, among them a scary episode when I was directly threatened by him.
So naturally a lot of people are asking me what I think about the NYC race for mayor. And I'm telling them that I'd vote for David Dinkins without any hesitation.
The incident with Carson and Weusi doesn't tell us anything about Dinkins. What it tells us about is the nature of large political campaigns. In a big campaign, all sorts of people, with whom the candidate doesn't agree, often can manage to attach themselves to the campaign in minor roles. That's what happened here. What counts is that when Dinkins found out, he did something about it.
Instead of fixing on this campaign incident, people should be looking at the fact that Dinkins has devoted his entire public life to opposing extremists, whatever racial or ethnic group they may come from. He was one of the first public officials to repudiate the hatred preached by Louis Farrakhan. He worked behind the scenes to bring Italian-Americans and African-Americans together after the recent Bensonhurst murder. And Dinkins is widely recognized for his dedication to the survivors of the Holocaust, to Soviet Jewry, to a variety of other Jewish causes -- and, indeed, to the civil rights of all people.
The city will need a man with Dinkins' proven commitment to harmony and justice to bring it through the kinds of racial and ethnic confrontations we've been seeing recently. And several of the city's newspapers have specifically recognized the importance of this quality in endorsing Dinkins' candidacy for mayor. "What no one disputes is his [Dinkins'] most evident characteristic," said the New York Times in its endorsement. "New York knows David Dinkins to be, above all, a conciliator .... His instinct is to unify." The New York Daily News wrote in its endorsement that Dinkins "exhibits a natural, innate sense of fairness and compassion. There is in David Dinkins a deeply rooted civility that is the essence of effective and humane leadership."
But here's another reason Dinkins would get my vote: his commitment to public education. Sandra Feldman, the current UFT president, praises Dinkins for his "proven record" in education. She notes that, during his four years as Manhattan borough president, Dinkins was actively concerned with improving that borough's schools and protecting the interests of children: "Whether it involved an educational issue, a decaying physical plant, or problems of safety and security in a drug-infested area, Dinkins always worked to cut through the red tape and get us help."
The city's parents and teachers are going to need a leader in City Hall with that kind of interest in education - especially now that NYC is facing a massive fiscal crunch that, some people think, may rival the bad days of the mid-1970s. Where's Rudolph Giuliani, Dinkins' opponent, on education? On the wrong side. Feldman notes that Giuliani doesn't believe education needs additional resources this despite overcrowded classes, decaying school buildings and thousands of kids who may never get help because there are so few guidance counselors, to name only a few of the many problems that cry out for resources. And Dinkins doesn't just focus on current problems; he's an advocate of the reforms necessary to prepare our schools and children for the 21st century.
If New Yorkers look at what David Dinkins has done over the years for all the people of the city, they'll see what he can do for the future of their city -- and give him a resounding victory in Tuesday's mayoral election.