Discrimination

The Carroll County Community Relations Commission has drawn 10 complaints of discrimination on the basis of physical disability, race and ethnicity during its first 10 months.Still, "There are people who really believe we don't have those problems in Carroll County," said Carroll County Commissioner Jeff Griffith at a panel discussion and forum the Community Relations Commission conducted Wednesday night at William Winchester Elementary School in Westminster.About 30 people attended the forum, conducted to publicize the new commission's goal of investigating disputes over discrimination for race, gender, age, religion, physical and mental handicaps, marital status, national origin and ancestry.

Thousands of discrimination complaints are filed every year. Some of them make the local news pages; most we never hear of. It takes a national cause celebre, such as the federal lawsuit involving six black Secret Service agents versus the Denny's restaurant in Annapolis, to wake us up to the fact that this country has far to go in race relations.The agents, assigned to protect President Clinton at the U.S. Naval Academy two months ago, sat for a full hour without being served while white customers all around them, including their own colleagues, were waited on.Just slow service, as Denny's claims?

CHICAGO -- David R. Gillespie may be an unlikely Rosa Parks, but we have to take our civil rights heroes where we find them. Ms. Parks rebelled because, being black, she was told to ride in the back of an Alabama bus while whites got to sit up front. Mr. Gillespie could not tolerate paying a $5 cover price on "ladies' night" at a New Jersey bar while females were getting in free. This being a civil rights drama, you can guess how it ends. Mr. Gillespie took legal action, and last week, the walls of discrimination came tumbling down.

Washington -- A caller to a radio show recently suggested that the fate of Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, punished by fellow baseball owners for uttering racial slurs, should be left up to market forces. If the fans are offended, the caller reasons, the fans should stay away from her ballpark.That, to me, is free advice that's worth every penny of what the listener pays to hear it.But there is another way that market forces could play a bigger role in encouraging equal opportunity. Former Harvard Law Professor Derrick Bell suggests something similar in his book ''Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism.

PHILADELPHIA -- After three weeks of riveting testimony and high-stakes lawyering that rivaled the film "Philadelphia," the AIDS discrimination trial of "Scott Doe" ended yesterday in a way that would never have played on the big screen.With a secret settlement, which lawyer onlookers suggested would have to be at least $1 million."I'm elated, I'm glad it's over, and I'm looking forward to getting along with my legal career," said the lawyer, 30, after the 14 federal court jurors were told that the settlement had ended the trial of his discrimination suit against his former employer, the prestigious law firm of Kohn, Nast & Graf.

Velleggia's Restaurant is appealing a Maryland Commission on Human Relations' Appeals Board ruling that the Little Italy establishment discriminated against the disabled.The ruling stems from a complaint made to the commission in August 1996 by a patron in a wheelchair who could not use the restaurant's main entrance, which has only steps.The commission investigated and ruled that Velleggia's was discriminating against people with disabilities by not making a reasonable accommodation for those in wheelchairs.

The state Human Relations Commission has charged the Rising Sun volunteer fire department with sex discrimination in suspending a female ambulance aide who complained of sexual assault by a co-worker.The commission said yesterday that it has been unable to informally resolve the issue with the Cecil County fire company, which suspended Paula J. Haavistola in March 1990 after she complained of the alleged incident and threatened to file criminal charges.The volunteer firefighter accused by Ms. Haavistola was acquitted of fourth-degree sexual assault in March by the Cecil County Circuit Court, reversing a District Court judge's finding.

DAN QUAYLE played 18 holes before someone tapped him on the shoulder and pointed out that there were protesters outside the Cyprus Point Golf Course. The vice president was shocked. Protest? Trouble? Whatever could be the matter?The matter was a simple one, and until last week I suspected the only people who didn't know about it were those who were vacationing in LindaCottonSamoa last summer. That's when civil rights groups protested holding the PGA championship at Shoal Creek Country Club, an all-white club in Birmingham, Ala., which barred blacks as either members or guests.

WHERE were you in 1960?I was 7 years old and in the second grade.My world consisted of the street on which I lived. I had my school and my friends and my Barbie doll, and that was about it. I didn't read the newspaper, I didn't watch the news on TV, I had no concept of current events.only brush with politics came one morning as I waited outside Howard Park Elementary School for the doors to open. I listened as some kids debated whether John F. Kennedy would be the next president. I didn't know who Kennedy was. I barely understood the notion of next president.

A panel created to fight discrimination continues to battle for its own survival, but has found a temporary home with a private agency.Meanwhile, the County Commissioners remain undecided on whether they should formally support such a panel.Richard D. Bucher, chairman of Carroll County's Community Relations Commission, said he and the other six volunteer members believe the commissioners' seeming lack of support for their group sends a message that discrimination isn't a problem.Bucher said in addition to philosophical support, his panel needs a consistent address to which people can send or phone in complaints, and minimal money for postage, phone calls and fliers.