THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510210279
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
If there were only 400,000 at Monday's Million Man March in Washington, how come I'm now engaged to 870,000 men?
For any woman with polygamist propensities, the march was a grand opportunity.
Or if, like Yolanda Nash, you were only looking for one in a million.
``I came up here to find me a husband,'' said Nash, a postal worker who flew up from Atlanta. ``Isn't this something? All these black men and none of them are ugly.''
And for those who might have been looking for a few good men, my new Million Man March national dating data base can help. It features at least 655,000 names.
Who would've thought that my man-hunting skills could exceed the U.S. Park Police's crowd-counting capabilities? They estimated 400,000.
March organizer Minister Louis Farrakhan alleges that the Park Police intentionally undercounted the throng.
Purposely or not, the police certainly miscounted.
Commissioned by ABC News, Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing used digital analysis of Park Police photos to arrive at an estimate of 870,000 people.
A 25 percent margin of error puts the center's lowest count at 655,000 and highest at about 1.1 million.
The Park Police ought to be taken to task. Their wildly inaccurate estimate undermines the historic significance and potential impact of the event.
Further, it underestimates the amazing spirit of the march: The fact that nearly a million black men, often viewed as the most violent and criminal element of American society, gathered peacefully. There were only three arrests: two for vending without a license and an alleged bomb threat by Mirran Kosinski, according to The Washington Times.
More than anything, this spirit of brotherly love prevailed in the moving mass of men. It was Afro-America reaffirming, embracing itself after the battering and beating of the last 15 years brought on by our own negligence and compounded by other forces.
At its core was the question: What can we do to help ourselves?
Kindness was palpable. People hugged. Men I didn't even know held my hand. (And that was all right with me.)
Fathers and sons like Earle Jones, an 80-year-old retired physicist, and Earle F. Jones, a 48-year-old lawyer, stood shoulder to shoulder. Others just smiled as if in a daze. It was a family reunion to beat all. Someone - I don't know who - called it ``the greatest family values'' gathering.
The march was about anything but Farrakhan. The crowd visibly began to dissipate as he spewed his discursive, arcane, 2 1/2-hour mumbo jumbo. Thank goodness he spared us his usual ugly diatribe. If there's any residual atoning to be done, he'll have to do it for that speech.
There is no need for others of a different hue to feel threatened by this uniquely African-American reaffirmation. Rather, the energy at the Mall on Monday should give birth to enterprise that benefits all America.
Want your car to gleam in the autumn sun? Come to the celebrity scrub today at Rudy's Hand Car Wash, 415 Campostella Road in Norfolk. A year ago, Norfolk police Capt. Rudy Burwell started the operation to provide jobs for core-city kids. Money raised will fund outreach programs, such as the Police Athletic League, DARE, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. See you there. by CNB