07/02/2001 - Updated 07:52 PM ET
Al Sharpton must come clean to be taken seriouslyI did a search for the 1988 Newsday article DeWayne refered to but didn't find it. Prolly before they got online, or locked away in their archives.WASHINGTON — I believe in second chances.
I think people who have erred should be given an opportunity to redeem themselves. Sin and forgiveness are basis tenets of Christianity. But redemption must start with acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
All of this brings me to the murmuring in the media about the possibility of Al Sharpton seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. The Pentecostal preacher ascended to the top ranks of this nation's black activists by showing up at the scene of several racial conflicts. Critics accuse him of building his career on the grief of others, like the lawyers who rush to accidents.
"I'm not an ambulance chaser, I am the ambulance," Sharpton delights in answering. If that's so, he at times may have been guilty of reckless driving.
At best, Sharpton is an enigma; at worse, his is a civil rights grifter.
For sure, this one-time child preacher (he was ordained at 10) once was an FBI informant who helped the feds jail some drug dealers and mobsters. Newsday reported in 1988 that Sharpton also supplied federal prosecutors with information on several New York area black politicians and boxing promoter Don King, a charge Sharpton strongly has denied.
But Sharpton probably is best known for his association with Tawana Brawley, the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., black teen-ager who falsely claimed to have been kidnapped and raped by several white assailants. Sharpton, who became a high-profile adviser to Brawley's family, accused a local prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of taking part in the rape.
Pagones sued Sharpton for defamation and three years ago won a judgment. With the help of some black businessmen, Sharpton paid the $65,000 award, but he has never retracted the charges or apologized.
If Sharpton does run for president, and wants his campaign to be taken seriously, he needs to put the Brawley episode behind him — and to do that, he has to apologize to Pagones and shed more light on his role as a snitch for the FBI.
Sharpton portrays the undercover work he did as a civic duty: He has said he wanted to help put some bad guys behind bars. Left unanswered is how a preacher could be so closely linked to drug dealers and mobsters as to be a useful informant for prosecutors. One of Newsday's sources suggested that Sharpton had been snared in a sting operation and forced to become a federal informant. Sharpton denies this, too.
Before he hits the campaign trial, Sharpton needs to do a better job of dispelling these charges. And he needs to give Pagones a call.
Sharpton needs to tell Pagones that he is sorry for the hurt he caused when he labeled him a rapist. He should explain, as he has to many journalists that, as Brawley's spokesman, he merely was giving voice to her claims. He should say that, like many others who believed the teen-ager's story, he was duped into taking up her cause.
Sharpton wants to be viewed as more than a political gadfly. He has run two unsuccessful campaigns for the Senate and lost a bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York. Now he is exploring the possibility of trying to win the Democratic presidential nomination. But to be a serious candidate, he has to rid himself of the taint that his stint as an FBI informant and Brawley's adviser has brought him.
If he does, I think a lot of people will give him the benefit of the doubt and listen to what he has to say about some of the important issues facing this nation. But if he can't come clean on these lingering matters, there isn't much chance that Al Sharpton will be taken seriously by Democratic officials — or many voters.
An "enigma"...careful how ya use that word pardnur.
At best he's a thief and a lier and at worst he was involved in a multiple murder.