
          The Cold Hard Truth
          By Chestnust, J.L., Jr.J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
          Vol. 12, No. 1, 1990, pp. 16, 15
          
          Herbert O. Reid, Sr., (Herb) is attorney for the Washington, D.C.,
municipal government and personal lawyer and advisor to Marion Barry,
the embattled and dishonored mayor of the nation's capitol city. Herb
taught me criminal law at Howard University in Washington and
subsequently taught Bruce Boynton and Governor Doug Wilder, whose
class followed mine.
          At Herb's invitation I often return to Howard to lecture and judge
students in moot court competition. I cannot be certain if I first met
Barry in Herb's office or in Walter Fauntroy's church office, but I
have known and liked Barry for a decade.
          I did not know Barry when he was with the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s. Jim Forman, Bernard
Lafayette, Julian Bond, John Lewis and Worth Long were in my office
almost daily. Barry was here, but I don't remember him. He remembers
me.
          Julian Bond, who moved to Washington after very serious personal
problems in Atlanta, ran into Vivian and me last summer at the New
Orleans Jazz Festival and we talked about mutual friends. Julian said,
"Marion has lost all sense of reality. I couldn't believe what he
said over his telephone and he knows it has to be tapped by the
feds."
          Julian had no need to detail what Barry said on the telephone. I
knew it had to do with drugs and women. Similar revelations have been
around for years.
          Neither Julian nor I made any other comment about Barry. We could
only pray.
          After the sky fell on Barry I made several telephone calls around
Washington. Everyone agreed drug addiction spawns a euphoric, false
sense of security and incredible arrogance. Herb commented, "No
one, not even a loving wife, can really help an addict who thinks he
needs no help."
          A black female official in Washington whom I have known for years
was needlessly defensive and abrasive. She insisted Steve Smitherman
(son of Mayor Joe) is a former mayor of Selma and wrongly accused me
of covering for "the worst kind of Southern racist" and my
hometown. She later composed herself and said, "Drugs and whiskey
are often exclusive, but our boy had both monkeys at the same
time."
          Jesse Jackson was due to address a meeting in Selma about the time
of Barry's arrest on drug charges. His secretary called to say he was
in "a trance" over the arrest. Jesse canceled all commitments and was
trying to figure what to do. I predict he will not run for office of
mayor of Washington, D.C.
          It was a depressing time. A sad, but hardly unique episode in
today's America. Some questions, however, must be answered.
          Has Barry's conduct undermined efforts to address the already
debilitating drug scene in Washington? Will Washington ghetto youths
become even more cynical? Was President George Bush's drug conference
in South America undermined to any appreciable extent by Barry's
arrest?
          The answer to all three questions is no. Given the noise 

in the media, that may be difficult to believe.
          The drug scene in Washington involves more money than many could
count on a computer. Drug traffickers operate in open defiance of the
White_House, not to mention City Halls. Illegal drugs have entered
every White_House beginning with the administration of Richard Milhous
Nixon. That is an open secret in Washington.
          Scores of ghetto youth already have zero faith in the system or
politicians who operate government. Ghetto youth can cite verse and
chapter of drug traffickers who operate both with impunity and
immunity. A misdemeanor bust for possession means nothing on the big
city drug scene, even if the defendant is a mayor.
          Barry's arrest had no effect on Bush's drug conference. The
conference will result in little or nothing because the president
brought only rhetoric and show.
          What a world!
          Peace.
          
            J. L. Chestnut is an Alabama trial lawyer and
writer.
          
        
