Steve Daley`s June 23 column demonstrates the distortion columnists can fashion when they mold the interpretation of events to fit their theses regardless of the more obvious-and more accurate-interpretat ions. Here, Daley sums up Rep. William Gray III`s decision to resign his house position in order to head the United Negro College Fund as opting for ”plump lecture fees and cushy seats on corporate boards.” More broadly, he attacks Gray`s decision solely in the context of the thesis of his column-that Democratic Party chairman Ron Brown has been the innocent sufferer of an insufferably divided party.
Certainly, if Daley were sentenced to only reading the underreported Tribune article on Gray`s resignation in mid-June, he would have been unable to know Gray`s explanation of his decision. Other newspapers (including the Sun-Times) reported Gray`s comments that the new position gives him an opportunity to return to bolster his family life and to strengthen the North Philadelphia church from which he began his meteoric rise.
As a student of urban policy in Philadelphia, I am confident that his loyal constituents-most of whom are black-will be more than satisfied with his decision to lead the United Negro College Fund. Clearly, one cannot understate-and certainly should not belittle-the importance of leading a major educational organization.
