The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 55

tumUy 'DCCCMBtW 20. 1W TlwTwnwMiii 0 SD When the powerful atase the power Frank Ritter Position: Reader Advocate Age: 60 Background; Native ot Marian County, Kentucky. Moved to Nashville In 1958. Graduated from Central High School, attended Pea body College, and received a A degree from Lipscomb University. Job: Worked briefly for the Tennessee State Labor Council as an errand boy, then came to The Tennessean in 1960 as a copy clerk.

Has covered most major beats on the newspaper and was In management for 17 years, including city editor and deputy managing editor. Became reader advocate In 1986. Also edits the "Nashville Eye" column on the opposite-editorial page. 111 1 mean they have complete faith in the system, but they are beginning to find that Justice occasionally does triumph. Sexism, racism and power intertwined create controversy, especially among the power-holders threatened by those whom they oppress.

Throughout the trial of Judge Lanier, his supporters denied that this man could commit such acts, even though eight women accused him. His attorney labeled the women's charges coerced testimony by law enforcement authorities and the work of his political enemies. The Jury recognized that argument for what it was a desperate defense. Many men, perhaps out of their own Insecurity, fantasize about having power over women. That's why, perhaps, the "magic words" in Lanier's trial were so forceful.

A woman fearful of losing custody of her child in Lanier's court submitted to his demands for oral white officers. The Nashville media have been criticized for presenting conflicting stories about what happened last Monday night on Lafayette Street Those conflicting stories have been difficult for reporters to sort through to establish the truth of what happened. Men and women of good conscience still have differing opinions about what happened to Miller. The only way to stop this kind There is more to Clinton than meets the eye tJlSS- ''ippfZ yTH Frank I kiuiiici ianu ees spoke out Eight courageous women in Dyersburg spoke out against a powerful judge. Reginald Miller, trying to perform his role as an undercover cop, spoke out Other black officers, watching Miller face the controversy, spoke about what it was like when, out of uniform, they were stopped by white cops in black neighborhoods for no reason.

The list can go on and on. The difference in these stories today as opposed to a few years ago is that women and minorities are beginning to trust the system to work for them. That does not time, as the last of four "Massey Lectures" commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and aired Christmas Eve. Crafted for both the immediate community and an international audience, "A Christmas Sermon on Peace" had a universal appeal that transcended time as well as boundaries. He described the tenuous predicament of humanity in terms that still seem appropriate in light of the suffering in Somalia and the carnage in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human race," he began. "We have neither peace within nor peace without Our world is sick with war." Despite this discouraging assessment, he believed that there was cause for a cautious optimism. "The Christmas hope for peace and good will toward all can no longer be dismissed," he said. He stated his belief that there were two conceptual obstacles that had prevented humanity DEAR Reader, Good morning! Two lessons in power leaped off the pages of The Tennessean last week: "I will do whatever you want me to without question." "I was a piece of meat thrown to a pack of dogs, and everybody got a bite." The first quotation came during testimony in the trial of Judge David Lanier of Dyersburg, convicted Friday of sexually assaulting women he thought he could bully. The second quote came after a police hearing for white officers accused of kicking and kneeing a black officer.

Both stories were about the powerful and the powerless at least the formerly powerless. Women and minorities are standing up to these abuses of power more than ever before. Desiree Washington, assaulted by Mike Tyson, spoke out Anita Hill spoke out. Sen. Bob Packwood's employ- Dr.

King's last message at Christmas A quarter of a century has come and gone since my husband, Martin Luther King delivered his last Christmas sermon in 1967. In so many ways it is a very different world since then, but his message is still relevant to our times. As co-pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, my husband preached two Sundays a month throughout most of 1967, in addition to his more publicized career as a civil rights leader. In 1967 he began to speak out increasingly against U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, believing that the war was draining anti-poverty funds.

He, of course, also thought it was morally wrong to send young Americans to die for a corrupt dictatorship. He had also published his fifth book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or and had begun to organize the Poor People's Campaign, a broad interracial coalition for economic justice. And he was planning a massive non-violent demonstration in the Capitol in 1968. Between raising four children and the ongoing church work required of a pastor's wife calling on the sick or bereaved, attending weddings and funerals, serving on various church committees and so forth it had been a hectic year for me as well. We looked forward to the Christmas season as a time to renew our family life and enjoy the spirit of the holidays.

Martin's sermon to his Ebenezer congregation the Sunday before Christmas did double I Coretta Scott King sex. He then sent her to another man for employment, telling him the code words will be, "I will do anything you want me to without question." That's a woman submitting to overwhelming power. Lynn Warner, a Dyersburg physician, said Lanier sent the woman to him to apply for a job. Warner said Lanier told him the woman would submit to sex for employment and would say the "magic words" in the interview. What we don't know is how many similar cases there are in Tennessee, with men in power taking advantage of women who need employment, who need to keep their jobs, who need to support children, who need to survive.

We already have learned from other black police officers that Miller's story about being treated differently because he is black has credibility. Off-duty black police officers recount stories of being fearful of being stopped by ny of means and ends in the search for peace. "We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal means and ends must cohere because the end is pre-existent in the means, and ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends." By embracing our interdependence and the need for peaceful means to achieve peaceful ends, he believed that humankind could experience a new era of peace and prosperity, and this is still true today. Martin didn't live to preach another Christmas sermon, but his concluding words that Sunday about the power of faith still offer hope as we celebrate Christmas, 1992. "We must finally believe in the ultimate morality of the universe we have cosmic companionship.

With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and good will toward men. It will be a glorious day when the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy." (King is the head of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center In Atlanta.) of abuse of power is to bring the cases to light for full scrutiny, to have a fair hearing, and to administer swift and certain justice. That happened in Nashville and West Tennessee last week.

Today, Frank Ritter looks at the week's events in Nashville surrounding the Miller case. His report begins on page 1 of this section. Good reading, Frank If his about-to-be predecessor, George Bush, can boast an international Rolodex, Clinton certainly has all the bases covered stateside. For two days, the 46-year-old brandished a first-name fellowship with every big shot from Berkeley to Boston. He had friends on hand from his days at Georgetown, Oxford and Yale law, every policy wonk and interest-group advocate he's met for 30 years.

If there's a Democrat with an idea, it seems, Bill Clinton not only knows the person but can speak the same language. The president-elect also displayed his ability to go mute, to say absolutely nothing when that is precisely the message he wishes to convey. Cases in point: entitlement reform, defense cuts, taxes. When an Oakland, participant argued Monday that Clinton's economic summit was "nibbling around the edges" of the federal deficit question, that panelists were afraid to suggest politically "touchy" cuts in the huge social entitlement and Pentagon programs, the man presiding switched to his poker face. When Jessica Tuchman Mathews, an environmental expert, brought up the need for new tax revenues, Clinton passed again, thereby honoring the axiom of former U.S.

Sen. Edmund Muskie: Only talk when it Improves the silence. (Matthews is a syndicated columnist.) i til- I I -5 fr? Chris 4a Matthews 7 from achieving lasting peace down through the ages. The first was a mispided obsession with human separateness, a failure to recognize our interdependence. "If we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional," he said.

"Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools." This interdependence, he believed, was an immutable law of creation. "It really all boils down to this," he told the crowd that had packed into Ebenezer: That all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly, affects all indirectly." The second misconception that Martin believed was leading man to destruction was the disharmo- LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

The most staggering aspect of Little Rock, is its smallness. This Tiny Tim of state capitals reminds the visiting Washingtonian less of his own grown-up town than of the little city of Rosslyn just across the Potomac. Let me be fair to Rosslyn. To begin, the little Virginia city is much bigger than Little Rock, and its buildings are certainly much higher. Next: location.

Rosslyn is an "edge city," part of the larger minimetropolis of Washington. Little Rock, in contrast, is a world onto Itself, consisting of a state capitol, a convention hall and three nearby hotels. Looked at from the sky, it could be one of those stark little towns young boys array amidst their Lionel train layouts. I am not the first to make this brutal comparison of scale. The Sunday before last month's election, Ross Perot used a nasty pie chart to contrast the size of the Arkansas economy with that of the country as a whole.

Perot's cruel square of cardboard was meant to show both the thinness of the Democratic presidential candidate's experience and the vastness of his ignorance. For two days last week, Bill Clinton told the rest of the story. He showed the country what Ross Perot's pie chart ignored: the greatness of our next president's network, measured in both ideas and people. For hour upon hour, C-Span's camera ever attentive, the 46-year-old leapt from job apprenticeship programs to health care to capital formation as deftly and exuberantly as a porpoise showing off for aquarium customers. Our moderator in Little Rock was equally impressive on the social front.

7. In so many ways, it is a very different world today, but Martin Luther King message is still relevant to our times. When it happens to you The nightmare that you think will always occur to someone else might be your fate By JEREMY ROLFS fl name is Jeremy Rolfs. I I You may have read a story about me. You may have seen my picture on TV.

You may have learned that my fiancee and I were assaulted last month in Marietta, Ga. You may have heard that Heather Uffelman, the woman I was planning on spending a full and wonderful life with, died from her wounds. You may have said to someone you love, "That's terrible," then turned the page. News is more than what you read. News is more than the images of police and ambulances you see on TV, more than official statements read by a newscaster.

News is about people who used to say, "It could never happen to me." When Heather and I would see the misfortunes of others in the media, we always found one emotion mixed in with our sympathy: helplessness. I never suspected just how helpless a man could be. For the rest of my life, I will know that there was nothing I could do to stop a killer from murdering the most important person in my world. News is more than what you read. News is about people who lie awake at night knowing that all they could do was not enough to prevent tragedy.

Today, I will try to be helpless no more. A memorial scholarship has been created at Middle Tennessee State University, where Heather was about to receive a degree in English. She worked at the school's radio station, WMOT, and she tutored in the developmental studies writing lab. Her greatest joy was in helping others. Though between the two of us we didn't have much money, we still gave what we could to scholarship funds to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

There are many young people in the world who want to help others the way Heather did. They want to go to college, but don't have the money. Heather would be overjoyed to know that in some way, she could help people still. But that can only happen if we raise enough money to fund her scholarship. We must collect a large sum of money, put it in a special bank account then let the interest earned each year pay the tuition of the scholarship winner.

Today, I am trying to leave my feelings of helplessness behind. I am asking each of you who has learned of this loss to help us keep Heather and the things she believed in alive and shining. This is no longer a news story about someone you never knew. You are no longer helpless. You can no longer say, "It's horrible, but there's nothing I can do." News is more than what you read, see and hear.

This time, news is about vou. No gift is too small. Do what you can. It will be deeply appreciated. For many, I hope that will be a donation.

For others, perhaps the most they can do is pray for Heather's family and for the police as they work around the clock to keep this killer from hurting anyone else. Whatever you choose to do, I ask this final thing: Treasure each moment. They are golden, every one. Jeremy Rolfs and Heather Uffelman, used to enjoy playing with their two dogs. Now, Heather is dead, and Jeremy is trying to create a memorial scholarship for her.

Take care, God bless. (Rolfs, a senior at Middle Tennessee State University, is majoring in mass communications. Gifts to the Heather Uffelman Memorial Scholarship Fund should be sent to Box 51, MTSU, Murfreesboro, 37132.) I I.