Cynthia Tucker, The Atlanta Constitution
Posted 5/31/2000 12:00:00 AM

Jackson and Milosevic: Tricky business, dealingwith a devil -- May 5, 1999
Jefferson's kin ought to accept black relatives-- May 16, 1999
JFK Jr. legacy: If nothing else, he was role modelfor the elite -- July 21, 1999
Abernathy allies: Kings defend rogue who sulliedfamed name -- September 22, 1999
South honors fatal culture of violence -- November28, 1999

Jackson and Milosevic: Tricky business, dealing with a devil

May 5, 1999

As an ordained Baptist minister, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is requiredto have faith in the power of redemption. It's in the job description.

Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that Jackson would chide hisbuddy, President Bill Clinton, for "dehumanizing" Yugoslav President SlobodanMilosevic. Perhaps it is to be expected that Jackson would bow in prayer withMilosevic. Perhaps it is not so startling that Jackson would grasp Milosevic'shand, as if they were soulmates on a shared mission. In Christian theology,even Milosevic is not beyond salvation, no matter his crimes.

But as a longtime civil rights leader, Jackson has also hadclose-up, face-to-face experience with human evil. He has seen the savageryof seemingly ordinary, churchgoing folks who did not flinch from lynching, beating,bludgeoning, firebombing or fire-hosing their fellow citizens just because theywere of a different color. And Jackson has not hesitated to call that evil byits name.

That same evil finds fertile ground in Milosevic. It has beenwritten that he is not a madman but rather a shrewd politician, not so mucha hater as a survivor. The distinction hardly matters. He has presided overa pogrom in which women have been gang-raped by his soldiers, young men marchedfrom home and shot in the back of the head, children driven from their housesjust as his soldiers set the buildings afire. All because they were a differentpeople, of a different religion, than Milosevic is.

Jackson missed an opportunity to call that evil by its name.Milosevic is no different from the Philadelphia, Miss., murderers who killedthree civil rights workers and buried them in an earthen dam. He is no differentfrom the politicians who declared "Segregation now, segregation forever," givingcover to the crazed haters who bombed a Birmingham church and killed four girls.

Milosevic complained to Jackson about being portrayed by theClinton administration as Satan, but there is a good reason for the portrayal.Milosevic has turned much of the former Yugoslavia into a bloody killing field,attempting to "cleanse" the land of as many Muslims as he can. For years, ifnot decades, human rights workers will be digging up mass graves that bear witnessto the massacres Milosevic's men have carried out. Kosovo is just the lateststop in his campaign of genocide. It started, you will recall, in Croatia.

There is undoubtedly a tension in the minister's mission --hating the sin while loving the sinner. Jackson's mission had a host of tensions.If he wanted to gain the release of three American prisoners of war, he couldhardly afford to condemn Milosevic loudly and repeatedly.

The significance of Jackson's accomplishment, especially witha hard case such as Milosevic, should not be underestimated. He has not onlybrought home three weary young men and eased the fears of their families butalso taken away one of Milosevic's bargaining chips. The Clinton administrationno longer has to keep the soldiers' safety in its calculations.

More important, it just may be that Jackson has helped nudgeopen the door for negotiations between NATO and Milosevic. Like the other religiousleaders in his delegation, Jackson always believed that Milosevic could be movedby moral appeals and that peace should be given another chance. There is nomore important role in the world for preachers than encouraging peace.

Still, even preachers ought to be wary of getting so close toevil that they are seduced by it. There was something about Jackson's handholdingwith Milosevic that was discomfiting, as if Jackson had forgotten what the manhas done. Would Jackson have been as warm and cozy with the murderers of MedgarEvers or Martin Luther King Jr.?

Jefferson's kin ought to accept blackrelatives

May 16, 1999

As a veteran of family reunions, I can tell you they are oftenfractious affairs. Folks get their feelings hurt.

"Uncle Junebug hasn't spoken to Uncle Pink in 32 years, andhe isn't about to talk to the stubborn old fool now. So who sat the two togetherat the banquet table? Aunt Lillie Bell never did care for Aunt Coot's sweetpotato pie, and she never tires of telling her so. So how did the two of themend up in the kitchen together? The descendants of old Jim Tucker have feltslighted for decades by the descendants of old Jack Tucker -- a bossy, elitistcrowd. So who allowed Jack's clan to substitute a museum trip for the traditionalfish fry and casino night?"

Given my experience with these affairs, I've got a little advicefor the members of the Monticello Association: If the first gathering of theblack and white descendants of Thomas Jefferson doesn't go all that smoothly,don't give up on it. You're just acting like family.

After DNA tests supported centuries-old claims that Jeffersonhad fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings, the MonticelloAssociation -- a group of 700 officially sanctioned (read "white") Jeffersondescendants -- had little choice but to include the African-American heirs.Their first inclusive gathering, which goes through Monday, has no doubt beenlively.

The invitation to Hemings' descendants started as a small actof rebellion by one white member of the Jefferson clan. Lucian Truscott IV toldthe Hemings descendants that they should gate-crash the gathering, held everyMay at Jefferson's famous Monticello estate in Charlottesville, Va.

When the association heard of the plan, they issued two dozenHemings descendants an official invitation. Said Monticello Association PresidentRobert Gillespie, "I want them to realize they are welcome by the entire group,not just Lucian Truscott."

But not too welcome. The Jefferson descendants are squabblingover whether the black kin will have full membership in the Monticello Associationand the privilege of burial in the family graveyard at Monticello, where Jeffersonis buried. "We need to start the process of determining if they are descendants.There is some indication that they are, but we need to get more evidence," saidGillespie.

I have news for Gillespie and the other white Jeffersons: Theevidence is in. DNA cannot be denied. While Jefferson defenders try to hidebehind caveats of science (the DNA report only stated definitively that a Jeffersonmale was father to Hemings' youngest child), prominent white historians havegiven up trying to protect Jefferson's legacy.

So Gillespie needs to adjust to a bit of reality I have learnedto live with: You can't choose your relatives. Every family reunion I attendsubjects me to at least a couple of kinsmen I'd rather not be associated with,but the genes have already been cast. Those folks -- arrogant jerks or drunks,officious busybodies or scam artists -- cannot be excluded.

Indeed, the Monticello Association has led me to think of extendingmy family's reunions to include my white relatives. Like many African-Americans,I've got white kin.

Getting them to accept an invitation should not be difficult.After all, none of my white ancestors was a Founding Father, with a significanthistorical legacy to try to protect from the irony of black blood ties. Thewhite Tuckers have been farmers, merchants, slaveholders. There was a Confederateofficer or two. Mostly, they're ordinary folk.

So if the Jefferson clan does not end up in a drunken brawl(or even if they do), I might just issue a renegade invitation to the otherTuckers: "Y'all come!" Breaking bread together would be a good way to get toknow one another, and I expect we'd learn that we have more in common than weknew. I expect that the Jeffersons will learn that, too.

JFK Jr. legacy: If nothing else,he was role model for the elite

July 21, 1999

He was the perfect canvas on which to paint our larger-than-lifefantasies -- well-born, charming, rich, and handsome. So, upon his untimelydemise, many Americans are also mourning the death of their own dreams, allthose things they had hoped for that John F. Kennedy Jr. can never become: ambassador,senator, president.

If some of the speculation on the achievements of a middle-agedJKF Jr. seems a bit far-fetched given a young man of relatively meager accomplishments,it also seems inevitable.

In a culture that values wealth and celebrity over all else,the golden boy at the heart of Camelot was bound to captivate us. The myth ofCamelot, after all, was fueled not just by the glamour of a youthful president,John F. Kennedy, and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, but also by the senseof promise in their public service.

Still, there are other Kennedys to carry on the family politicaldynasty. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend -- daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and lieutenantgovernor of Maryland -- is talked about as a likely gubernatorial candidate.Robert Kennedy Jr., a New York attorney, would make an attractive candidate.Patrick Kennedy, son of Ted Kennedy, is making a name for himself in the U.S.House.

What the culture needed instead of more politicians was justwhat John Jr. gave us -- an enormously privileged guy who knew how to bearthe burdens of fame and wealth with grace. If his greatest accomplishment washis refusal to act like a jerk, that ought to be given its due.

It is rare enough. The headlines and airwaves are full of talesof the coddled and privileged behaving badly, of the scions of the famous pimpingtheir family names, of celebrities whining about the burdens of fame while plottingfuriously to stay in the spotlight. There is much too much of overpaid athletesleaving trails of cocaine arrests and paternity suits, of vain and self-importantactors who mistake their celebrity for influence, of egomaniacal billionaireswho assume the normal rules of law and civility do not apply to them.

John Jr. was a refreshing contrast to all that, an easygoingguy who wasn't just like the rest of us but worked at making it seem so. Hewas often seen with friends bicycling in Central Park or playing touch football.Rather than relying on an assistant to place his phone calls ("Would you holdfor Mr. Kennedy, please?"), he dialed himself ("Hello, this is John Kennedy"),recalled a friend of mine who knew him.

His grace was all the more rare because his celebrity was aburden. From adolescence he was stalked by paparazzi, his every stumble recorded.An early failure to pass the New York bar exam was noted with the headline "TheHunk Flunks." His love life, especially his courtship of Carolyn Bessette, wasred meat to the sharks of the entertainment media. Yet he kept his cool.

Kennedy seemed a self-possessed young man, comfortable withhis pedigree but not captive to it. He knew how to play off his celebrity withoutexploiting his family name. He founded a celebrity-tinged political magazine,George, in which he once posed nearly nude. Yet he turned down an appeal torun for a U.S. Senate seat from New York, apparently because he understood thathe was not yet ready for a prominent political post.

The better we came to know John Jr., the better we also cameto know his mother, Jackie, who reared John and her daughter, Caroline, to bearup under the white-heat of intense scrutiny without meltdowns. If the only thinghe leaves us is a decent role model for the privileged, that will have to beenough.

Abernathy allies: Kings defend rogue who sulliedfamed name

September 22, 1999

Sometimes the price of loyalty is just too high. Sometimes,when you attempt to pull a worthless friend out of hole he's dug for himself,you end up covered in mud, too.

Such was the case last week, when Coretta Scott King used hername and prestige in an apparent effort to persuade a jury to go soft on a scoundrelnamed Ralph David Abernathy III, the son of Martin Luther King Jr.'s close friend,civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy Sr. For her trouble, Mrs. King andher entourage are now being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigationfor alleged jury-tampering.

Abernathy III capped an ignominious career as a state senatorwith an indictment on charges of stealing $13,000 from his state-funded expenseaccount. Last week, his trial on those charges ended in a hung jury. While jurorssay Mrs. King did not influence them, she has nevertheless sullied her name,giving the impression that she supports rogues and miscreants.

The prosecution seemed to have solid evidence on some of thecharges, including a taped conversation in which Abernathy admitted to his PRadviser, Zee Bradford, that he forged her name on expense vouchers and nevergave her the money he received. He begged and badgered her to lie, telling her,"Let me tell you this, if you don't lie, it will be your reputation."

For those who've followed Abernathy's high-profile flameout,the theft charges came as no great surprise. His previous career low-lightsincluded smuggling marijuana into the country in his underwear on a return tripfrom Jamaica; wandering into a women's restroom in a state building but failingto wander promptly back out; and insulting police officers who pulled him overfor driving 60 mph in a 30 mph school zone.

Even when he wasn't in trouble with the law, Abernathy was lessthan impressive as a legislator. His six-year tenure was characterized by laziness,absenteeism, headline-grabbing and attempts to get by on his father's good name.His legislative career was finally ended, mercifully, last year, when he bouncedthe check he submitted to pay a qualifying fee to run for re-election.

Mrs. King has undoubtedly kept up with Abernathy's troubles.Over the years, despite occasional tensions, the Abernathys and Kings have remainedfriendly. And, when Abernathy was indicted, Mrs. King may have thought of herown two sons and their struggles to come to manhood in the shadow of their father'sfamous name. Neither Martin Luther King III nor Dexter Scott King has ever beenindicted, but both have tainted their father's legacy with their endless profiteering.

So, last Wednesday found Mrs. King in a hallway outside theFulton County courtroom where Abernathy was being tried, praying with a groupthat included the defendant's mother, Juanita Abernathy, state Rep. Tyrone Brooks,New York activist Al Sharpton and Mrs. King's two sons. As the jury preparedto leave the courtroom for lunch, a sheriff's deputy asked the King entourageto leave the area. They ignored him, the deputy said.

When a deputy took the jury out through a different exit, theKing entourage followed and barged through the group of jurors. While Mrs. Abernathyclaimed it was "an accident," it looked like an attempt to impress upon thejurors the fact that Abernathy III had the support of the King family.

Mrs. King should have left Abernathy III -- who will probablybe retried -- to face the consequences of his reprehensible conduct. Instead,she lent him her reputation in an effort to help him salvage his family name.It's unlikely that Abernathy III appreciates her sacrifice, since he clearlycared so little for the family name himself.

South honors fatal culture ofviolence

November 28, 1999

Over in my home state of Alabama, they might shoot you for lookingat 'em funny. The law doesn't get too exercised over it. In court, the she-was-looking-at-me-funnydefense may sway a jury.

If you don't believe that, consider the public discourse thathas followed a case of road rage run amok on an interstate highway south ofBirmingham. After one suburban mother shot another suburban mom dead in a roadsideconfrontation earlier this month, a surprising amount of public sympathy hasflowed to the shooter.

It all started in a way that is frighteningly commonplace, witha scenario that would be recognized in any major metropolis in the country.On Nov. 8, in the grinding bumper-to-bumper traffic headed south on I-65 towardBirmingham's fast-growing Shelby County suburbs, two women started jockeyingwith each other for position -- chasing, maneuvering, gesturing. Tempers flared.

When they both took the same freeway exit, the stage was setfor confrontation.

As Shirley Henson's lawyer tells it, Henson was frightened forher life when Gena Foster jumped out of her car spewing obscenities, with --as one witness says -- her arms out and "her eyes wide open." So, when Fosterapproached Henson's sport-utility vehicle, Henson stuck her .38 out of the windowand shot Foster in the face.

Never mind that Foster was not armed. Never mind that Henson,according to the prosecutor, had room to drive around. Never mind that Hensonhad a cell phone and could have dialed 911. Never mind that Henson had her windowrolled down. Foster was gesturing, cursing and generally looking at her funny.

Perhaps because the incident involved two women, both white,suburban mothers without criminal records, it has drawn national headlines,underscoring the spread of the phenomenon called road rage beyond the testosterone-chargedtempers of male motorists. But the reaction to the shooting has also drawn attentionto a peculiar Southern code of conduct, which elevates the gun right alongsidethe Bible and takes pride in violence described as "self-defense."

Consider the comments on Birmingham talk-radio stations followingthe shooting. According to published reports, one caller said: "If there isaggressive behavior, somebody come after you, not only do you shoot 'em, youget out and shoot 'em again." Another caller, a woman, said, "If I'm in my carand somebody comes running up to my car, I sure would shoot them. That's justthe way it's gonna be."

Even the prosecutor, Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens,is taking a soft-edged approach to the case. Though Henson has been chargedwith murder, Owens says, "If they (the jury) were to come back with self-defense,I could accept that." Sounds like he's advocating that, since he made the statementto a local newspaper.

The odd notion that a verbal assault represents a threat tobe fended off with violence has a long tradition in Southern culture, accordingto Dov Cohen, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignand co-author of a book, "Culture of Honor," which examines Southern violence."The South has a culture of honor in which insults and affronts often are respondedto with violence," he said.

It's not just Yankee academics who have discerned a hair-triggertemper in the mind of the South. Duke University sociologist Kenneth Land believesthat the early Scottish and Irish settlers who are the ancestors of many white(and some black) Southerners passed on a quarrelsome nature that was part ofa "herding tradition."

Whatever the cultural causes of the mind-set, the tendency tooverreact boils to bloodshed because of widely available handguns. Alabama lawenforcement officials estimate that at least half of all Birmingham area motoristscarry handguns in their vehicles.

And as long as the common culture holds guns and "honor" inhigh regard, there'll be lots more mothers -- and fathers -- dying the samesenseless deaths.