Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230375
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Gov. Douglas Wilder said Americans must do everything in their power to avoid the sort of clashes now being seen in New York that set those with not much against those with nothing.
"People say: `What's happening in New York?' New York happens to be the focus of the attention today. It's everywhere in our country on a lesser scale," said Wilder.
"We would be much better off if we were not dominated by the crises which seem to be always racial. Rather than to pit class and class against each other, we need to indulge in a spirit of selflessness."
Mayor David Dinkins called diversity the nation's greatest strength.
"Our great experiment in democracy has not yet ended, and it will not be over until the bigot is the loneliest person in our country," Dinkins said.
Wilder echoed a theme of the Reagan administration, that government is not the place for solutions to every problem.
"While government has certain fundamental obligations to the public, it must not be viewed by the people as life's alpha and omega," Wilder said.
"In the 1990s and beyond, I believe it's imperative that we increase our emphasis on community programs and those related initiatives which call upon citizens to deal effectively with a wide range of problems which we can no longer look to government to solve," he said.
"As governor of Virginia, I shall continue to do all within my power to ensure that the defense fund's hard-won legal battles to open the doors of opportunity are protected in the commonwealth," Wilder said.
"If we are to maintain these gains - not just in Virginia, but across the nation - we must remain supportive of fiscally sound and progressive social initiatives originating in both the public and the private sectors," he said.
by CNB