[statecom-discuss] Fwd: Patrick's moonlighting. [A teachable moment on racism in journalism.]

[gary hicks]

gary hicks <dailyplanet20032003 at yahoo.com> wrote: Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 01:32:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: gary hicks <dailyplanet20032003 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Patrick's moonlighting. [A teachable moment on racism in journalism.]
To: dailyplanet20032003 at yahoo.com

   Ahhh, progress---------

>>Time was that when black  folks wrote, like Phillys Wheatley,  white colonial leaders travelled from as far away as Virginia to query whether or not she actually wrote the poems.

>>Time was when Frederick Douglass had to write the first of three autobiographies and then flee to England because fellow white Abolitionists didn't think he talked genuinely enough as a runaway slave. He was so brilliant!!! Too much so!!!

>>Time was that not so long ago, to be able to read or write was enough to place a black person, especially a black male, in physical danger. Too uppity. Too smart for his own good. Get the rope.

>>And now it's 2008 and our intrepid editors at the Boston Globe are not to be outdone under any circumstances. And the title of the editorial: you'd think he was writing the all-time handbook on casino gambling!

Gary  Hicks
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  THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING  
            Patrick's moonlighting      Boston Globe      GOVERNOR PATRICK has a  compelling personal story to tell, and he says he will be telling it on his own time. But the $1.35-million memoir Patrick has contracted to write over the next two or three years still presents conflicts with his day job - the job 1.23 million Massachusetts voters elected him to do.            April 1, 2008  -->  GLOBE EDITORIAL
 Patrick's moonlighting  April 1, 2008
 GOVERNOR PATRICK has a compelling personal story to tell, and he says he will be telling it on his own time. But the $1.35-million memoir Patrick has contracted to write over the next  two or three years still presents conflicts with his day job - the job 1.23 million Massachusetts voters elected him to do.
 Patrick says he will be writing the book "at nights and on weekends," as if he stops being governor after 5 p.m. His wan assurances bring to mind a similar miscalculation he made in his first months as governor, when he made a call to former US Treasury secretary Robert Rubin vouching for ACC Capital Holdings, a company where Patrick had been a board member. Patrick tried to mitigate the furor by saying he had not made the call "in his capacity as governor." No one begrudges Patrick a personal life or free time. But then, as now, he seems not to appreciate that he is never off the clock.
 The tension between the state's claim on Patrick's time and his own was only heightened by his clandestine trip to New York to ink the book deal while his casino gambling proposal was going down in flames. The proposal's defeat was a foregone  conclusion, but many of Patrick's hard-working allies felt abandoned by his retreat. "It's hard to imagine a more inept act," said one of Patrick's State House supporters.
 Also worrisome are the speaking engagements Patrick may be expected to make. The book will be published in 2010, in the heat of Patrick's reelection campaign, assuming he seeks reelection. To maximize reader interest, he will almost surely embark on a book tour. He has said he will donate a portion of his speaking fees to A Better Chance, the nonprofit group that helped get him a scholarship to Milton Academy. Patrick will have to choose his sponsors carefully to make sure speaking fees are not unregulated campaign contributions in another guise.
 It is true that former governor Weld spent the last six or seven months of his tenure writing a first novel, "Mackerel by Moonlight," but Weld had already checked out mentally from the job. We expect more from Patrick, whose promise has so  far not been met.
 All good expository writing aims to answer a question. Patrick will have many to choose from. Is becoming the second black elected governor in US history a grand enough achievement for him, or will he seek higher office still? Will he ever feel at home in the political fray, or continue to hold himself aloof from the mess of democracy? Is he a one-term governor? What really makes him tick? Massachusetts residents shouldn't have to buy the book to learn the end of that story. 

  
 
    © Copyright    var crYear = new Date(); document.write(crYear.getFullYear());2008 The New York Times Company
  
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