THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100499
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Forgiveness rustled in the breeze blowing down High Street.
It whipped at passers-by, some old, whiskered black men hurrying along, tickling down their spines, refreshing them.
Some were downright jolly. Just two days ago they had helped to re-elect James W. Holley III mayor of Portsmouth. It was a comeback to be coveted.
Nine years ago, a hate mail scandal had ousted the city's first black mayor in a recall. A lavish city travel budget, a good dose of partying and more than a touch of arrogance contributed to his fall.
Now, voters had carried Holley aloft to a 48 percent victory over two-term Mayor Gloria O. Webb.
``It's one of the greatest things ever happened in this town and I been here 71 years,'' said Curtis Williams, hands shoved into his dungaree pockets and a driver's cap on his head.
The retired Navy man was on his way ``to take care of some bid'ness'' when the irresistible beckoned, his buddies over at A-One Repair Center picking the bone about politics, in particular the new mayor.
``Any time we can forgive Richard Nixon for his sins against the public, we should be able to forgive Jim Holley,'' proprietor T. Walker Jr. was saying, his nose, bifocals and pliers poked in a VCR.
He plucked out a wire, leaned back and let go a big, belly whose-laughing-now laugh.
``When it comes to needing forgiveness, Holley's a Little Leaguer.
``White folks don't get kicked out when they do something,'' Walker went on.
Williams joined in with one of those deep, I-done-seen-some-foolishness-in my-time laughs.
``Forgiveness, that's a natural thing, because the way we've been stepped on down the line, we gon fight as hard as we can for our own. That's what the other peoples are doing for their race.''
There it was, the peculiar potion of logic, historical memory and loyalty that re-elected James Holley.
``It's not something we talk about, but rather than trust the white person, we would rather forgive the black person,'' a younger man had said earlier during my stroll along High Street.
``Isn't that something?'' He seemed almost amazed at the logic of it. But he glanced away, as if facing history, then shrugged his shoulders. ``Maybe it shouldn't be all that hard to understand.''
``Ahhhhhhhhh.'' At the repair shop, Walker slurped on his Big Gulp, the Pepsi flavor refreshing his throat.
``To be sure, we gon keep our eye on him.''
The fellows had forgiven, but they had not forgotten those old-time, basic standards of right and wrong, moral and immoral, just and unjust, which, of course, is what the civil rights movement was all about in the first place.
And right and wrong don't have a doggone thing to do with black or white, though sometimes folks may skew matters the wrong way when race gets involved.
``Oh, no,'' Williams said sternly, like a grandpa scolding a mischievous boy. ``He can't go back in there and do what he did before. We have to be hard on him. We're going to have to check on him.''
Check we will. by CNB