Racial Harmony

Old story:The secret to your long and happymarriage?My wife makes all minor decisions, andI'm responsible for all major ones.Minor decisions?Like, should we buy or rent?How should we discipline the children?Where should we invest our savings?Should we put Mom in a nursing home?And your major decisions?Is there a God?How do we achieve racial harmony?What is the meaning of life?Current story:A marriage of equal partners, with eachBalancing career and family,Providing child care and public service.

HOLLYWOOD - Jermaine Jackson says that he took a biting musical swipe at his superstar sibling, Michael, because his younger brother had frozen him out of his life.In an interview, Jermaine explained that the cantankerous lyrics to his song "Word to the Badd!!," which criticize Michael for allegedly changing his skin color and obtaining plastic surgery, were written in retaliation for eight months of unreturned phone calls."I understand he's a very busy person, but after you repeatedly try to contact your own brother and he doesn't call you back, you begin to wonder if he hasn't just completely lost touch with reality," Jermaine, 37, told the Los Angeles Times.

The third annual African-American Film Festival opens tonight at 8 at the Baltimore Museum of Art with ''Oreos With Attitude'' and "Touki Bouki.''"Oreos" is the story of black urban professionals who decide to adopt a white child to promote racial harmony. "Touki Bouki" follows the adventures of a young African couple who dream of going to Paris. After the screenings Dr. Mbye Cham, professor of African-American history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and actress Miriam Niang are to lead a discussion.

A memorial service for Mary Ellen Witherite, who was honored last month by the Methodists' Baltimore Conference for her work on behalf of peace, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Cape St. Claire United Methodist Church, 855 Chestnut Tree Drive in Cape St. Claire.Mrs. Witherite, 87, died July 2 of respiratory failure at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. She had lived in Cape St. Claire since 1955.She was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, Capital Area Division of the United Nations Association, Amnesty International and Commission on Race and Religion of the Baltimore Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

WASHINGTON -- For years it has been no contest: Political liberals proclaimed themselves the heirs to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., while conservatives said emphatically that was fine with them.To liberals, Dr. King was a courageous fighter, a leader in the fight for civil rights. Among conservatives, he was often derided as a philandering husband at best, a communist at worst.But today, words of praise for the slain leader can be found in many ideological quarters, including the very bastion of conservative Republicanism, the Heritage Foundation.

If a group of Baltimore pastors and ministers has anything to do with it, the lessons of racial harmony and nonviolent resistance propagated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. won't soon be forgotten. In honor of the 40th anniversary of King's assassination in 1968, the clergy members announced yesterday their plan to hold a 40-day "campaign for peace," starting Feb. 25, that is to include prayer vigils, consecrations of sites where violent crimes occurred and a commemorative march in Baltimore on April 4, the date of King's death.

Columbia woman is given Volunteer of Year 2000 honor As part of the "Maryland You Are Beautiful Program," Howard County honored volunteers in a ceremony Thursday in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building in Ellicott City. Emma Byrne of Columbia was chosen as Howard County's Volunteer of the Year 2000. For Byrne, a county resident for more than 27 years, volunteering is her full-time vocation. She retired from her job as a teacher in Baltimore schools about 19 years ago. As a member of the League of Women Voters, Byrne conducted a study and wrote a report, "A Safe Environment in Howard County Schools."

It is a sign of the times that the board of Baltimore Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC) is considering changing that respected name to Baltimore Clergy and Laity Committed to Racial Harmony.There are two reasons:First, it is not enough any longer to be concerned, to be interested, to worry about the continuing rise of racial tensions. It is urgently necessary to do something about it, as CALC is doing with its program of Congregations Pairing and Caring, bringing together diverse congregations -- white and black, Christian, Muslim and Jewish, upper- and moderate-income.

Arvid Fredborg, 80, a journalist and one of the first to report the scope and goals of the Nazi Holocaust, died of an apparent heart attack Thursday at his home outside Stockholm, Sweden.His 1943 book "Behind the Steel Wall" detailed the systematic genocide at Nazi death camps and estimated that 2 million Jews had been killed. The book came out two years after the death camps were started, but before the killing reached its peak. The book caused a stir in Sweden and was published in English in 1944.

A 21-year-old local drifter is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail after his arrest Monday night in the brutal gang beating of a 15-year-old in the quiet Mays Chapel community.Baltimore County police charged Christopher David Jacobs, 21, who has no known address, with assault with intent to maim and battery in an attack on Michael Louis Stuckey of Ballyhean Court.The Stuckey youth remains in stable but guarded condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.Police said a 16-year-old alleged to be Mr. Jacobs' girlfriend is also being charged as a minor with conspiracy and assault with intent to maim.