Marion Barry

Marion Barry -- Washington, D. C.'s "Mayor for Life" -- has once again gotten himself into a little bucket of sticky, ucky, goo. The older he gets, the easier it seems to be for him to do this. As a result of this scandal, the local "City Paper" printed this cover.

It's become a little celeb du jour in it's own right as many have protested it's print content. In the midst of this, lots of people have posted comments on the various aspects of this story to the City Paper's website. After reading them, I sent my own:

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Congrats City Paper! You've sold your quota for the month with this silacious cover. But here's the bottom line:

1) Marion Barry is a man who's done so FREAKING much in his life to end racism and advance the cause of equality for the people of the District of Columbia.

2) That was yesterday. No matter how wonderful his good works are/were they are not a free ticket to behave badly. Someone should tell him that.

3) White people by-and-large don't have a clue about racism, so they say really stupid and racist things without believing that they are doing so, because they still believe in the myth of a color-blind society...and have no clue what white privilege is, let alone that it benefits them in America with every breathe they take.

4) But such ignorance is not relevant to the issue at hand, other than the way it has displayed itself in some of the comments here.

5) So back to Marion. People, he's just an old man who enjoys SEX and has the means to pursue his desires without the good sense to know when he's crossed the line. He thinks his past good works entitle him to a present where he can have what he wants as a reflection of his status. And as long as his constituents choose to live in the past, and ignore, excuse, and deny his present outrageous behavior--why should he believe (let alone act) otherwise? That is the real deal here. Believe it!