What a

mess!

I don't

think I've ever seen such a shameless abuse of political

processes to accomplish legal goals as in Atlanta Mayor

Bill Campbell's recent actions.

Campbell

has vowed to "fight to the death," whatever

that means, to defend his administration's particular

brand of Affirmative Action against a lawsuit threatened

If you

believe his critics, he uses the program as a spoils

system to reward his campaign contributors.

Minority-owned businesses who contribute to his campaigns

receive the big contracts whether they meet the standards

of the program or not.

If you

believe his supporters, he has used the program to bring

small minority contractors up from poverty and give them

a place at the economic table.

In

discussions of Affirmative Action in general, I confess

to being torn.

On the one

hand, discrimination still exists in the business world.

Decision

makers for private industries as well as for governments

sometimes favor their own race when handing out contracts

and hiring workers.

Is the

solution to that problem to institutionalize

discrimination in favor of minorities in order to

equalize discrimination against them?

I honestly

don't have an answer to that.

It's very

easy to say that the forces of economics should decide

who gets the goodies - the company that can provide

the best service for the lowest price should get the

juicy government or corporate contract, and the hardest

working, best qualified worker should get the job or the

promotion.

Period.

But we all

know it doesn't work that way. The tendency even among

those with best intentions is to do business with those

who look and talk like us. And there are those whose

intentions are colored by prejudice and racial hatred.

On the

other hand, how can we ever realize our constitutional

ideal of equal treatment under the law if we take the

attitude that the only way to deal with discrimination

against one group is to discriminate somewhere else

against another group?

I have to

believe that if we uphold the Constitution, we have a

better chance of eventually getting it right. If I'm

wrong about that, then we might as well dismantle our

entire system of government and start from scratch.

So the

concept of Affirmative Action itself, as well as every

individual government's manifestation of the concept,

must meet the constitutional test, or we have to find

some other way of being sure that the majority doesn't

discriminate against the minority.

Enter Bill

Campbell, riding his high horse and vowing to defend the

way he administers Affirmative Action "to the

death."

He has

called for picketing of the homes of board members of the

Southeastern Legal Foundation, though he knows this is

illegal. He has called for boycotts against the

businesses of any individuals involved in the group. He

has attacked the group itself, calling names and giving

the impression we are dealing with a reincarnation of the

Klan itself.

One gets

the impression that he will do anything to keep this case

from going to court... to keep from having to measure his

practices against the standards set forth in the U.S.

Constitution.

And one has

to wonder what he is so afraid of.

His

spokesman keeps referring to the cost of a court battle.

It will cost millions, he says.

But it will

cost millions only if the city loses, and then appeals,

and loses, and then appeals until the case works its way

up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That seems

to be what the mayor and his minions expect to see

happen, and again, one has to ask oneself why they are so

unsure of their position.

Atlanta's

black community, encouraged by the participation of

numerous luminary, seasoned civil rights veterans, is for

all practical purposes united behind the mayor in

fighting tooth and nail to keep this case out of court.

Again, I'm

amazed to see so few asking themselves why the mayor is

so afraid to defend his program in court.

Either it's

constitutional, or it's not. Court is the place to find

out, not the streets.

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