THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280468
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Her journey from childhood poverty in Portsmouth to a job as the state's secretary of health and human resources taught Kay Coles James a lesson: If you want to solve America's problems, don't look to government. Look inside yourself.
``You want me to come up with a government program - mo' money, mo' money!'' James said. ``I can't do it. You must be involved. If you're a caring individual. . . The challenge is there for you.''
James, 45, sparked a crowd Tuesday at the Neptune Festival Prayer Breakfast with her brand of personal responsibility, enlivened with anecdotes from her own life. She credits her success to three solid pillars: faith, family and a caring community.
She started life in a cinder-block apartment on Carver Circle in Portsmouth's Douglass Park. Her father struggled with alcohol addiction. Her mother left him and moved to public housing in Richmond, where she raised six children.
James said her mother's ``monumental faith'' inspired her own belief in the power of prayer. ``It takes something extra, something beyond one's self, to look racism in America in the face and say, `You will not stop me,' '' James said. Prayer also helped her overcome the barriers of poverty and sexism.
But she would not have survived without a strong family, including aunts, uncles and cousins, she said. The family took care of each other, and had too much pride to let poor or drug-abusing relatives live on the streets, she said. ``I have gone out, found them and brought them home and. . . let them throw up on my new couch. Because that's what family does.''
Beyond her family, there was ``the village'' - the network of adults who made sure that children toed the line. James told about ``Aunt Gladys,'' a next-door-neighbor who fixed her hair every morning.
She recalled the lady across the street who watched over them all: ``Every neighborhood had one of these. She was the neighborhood snoop. That was her job - she was an older woman - to sit upstairs at her window and spy on us. .
That strong beginning pushed James toward achievement in public service. She served under President George Bush as associate director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and assistant secretary for public affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In January, Gov. George Allen chose her to lead the state's Health and Human Resources Department, with responsibility for 14 agencies and 19,000 employees.
But the social traditions that gave her strength to succeed have begun to erode, James said. People are disconnected. Families don't look after each other. Values aren't passed down through the generations.
Government can't fill the gap caused by the breakdown of the family, James said. Instead, she called upon the audience to rebuild ``the village of Virginia.'' She told them to start with churches, not city halls. She said they must look around and reach out to the people who need help.
``Government was not designed to meet every human service need, because you are too lazy to get out of bed and take your elderly aunt to the doctor,'' she chided.
``If we are going to tackle the problems and recapture the hope that is America, each and every one of us must take personal responsibility.'' ILLUSTRATION: KAY COLES JAMES
Job: Virginia secretary of health and human resources
Age: 45
Public Service: Associate director for the White House OfJames
fice of National Drug Control Policy and assistant secretary for
public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
under President George Bush; former member of the White House Task
Force on the Black Family; former member, Fairfax County School
Board.
Education: Graduated from Hampton University with a bachelor's
degree in history and secondary education.
In 1993, James published her autobiography, ``Never Forget.''
by CNB