Role Models

CHICAGO -- If you pay much attention to the presidential campaign (and these days our numbers seem to me to be remarkably few), you will hear a lot of talk about who is setting the best example for young people.President Clinton's scandal with Monica Lewinsky was a particularly strong issue with Republicans. Some viewed with alarm a front-page Washington Post story last spring about an apparent upsurge in oral sex among students at a local middle school. It quoted one eighth-grade girl as excusing her act with, "President Clinton does it."

Dr. Patrick L. Huddie has been appointed to the Howard Community College Board of Trustees by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.The Crownsville resident is a founder of Nationspower.com, an electricity-marketing company, and is co-founder of Microcosm Inc.He recently served as chairman of the college's Commission on the Future and assisted in recruiting private sector executives to serve on the board of the college's Advanced Technology Center.Huddie serves as vice chairman of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, chairman of the Mid-Maryland Advanced Technology Center, on the executive committee of the High Technology Council of Maryland and the Business Education Council of the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

Don't play race cardWhy did Jon Morgan want to play the race card in his article last week, "Black-and-white issue?"Race is not an issue. A great African-American, Martin Luther King, once said that a person should not be judged on the color of his skin but rather on the content of his character. This is demonstrated in sports time and time again. Owners, general manager, managers and coaches sign those players who help their organizations win games.Why does Mr. Morgan suggest that race is a factor when it comes to signing quarterbacks?

After last year's auspicious start, PussyCat Theatre Company's "Queer Cafe" is back at the Theatre Project with a new evening of short gay and lesbian plays. The five plays on the bill span subjects ranging from history to healing and styles ranging from abstract to naturalistic.Consider, for instance, the evening's two largely autobiographical pieces, one of which incorporates African elements and the other, mythology.Tatiana De Le Tierra's imaginatively staged "Biop-See" depicts a cancer patient's search for a cure.

Tomorrow, teens will be introduced to a magazine with the ability to balance acne, AIDS and Alicia Silverstone.Teen People is brought to the 13- to 21-year-old set by Time Inc., the power behind the 38 million-circulation People magazine. With a circulation of at least 500,000 and a newsstand price of $2.99, Teen People will produce 10 issues a year.Four million teens already read People, according to Christina Ferrari, Teen People's managing editor. Teen People is done in the People style, even featuring demographically correct versions of signature People sections such as "Star Tracks" and "Chatter."

A man who described himself as a proud relative of Frank Scarpola, convicted last week in the child abuse murder of 9-year-old Rita Fisher, wrote a letter to The Sun last summer to defend Scarpola as a "kind, friendly, somewhat naive gentleman" who moved into the Fisher home in Baltimore County and took on the duties of "man of the house." And that, the relative wrote, took guts.Especially given the state of the Fisher household at the time:A mother, Mary Utley, who seemed either to be irresponsible or maladjusted; Scarpola's girlfriend, Rose, often severely depressed; and two younger sisters, Georgia and Rita, with emotional and learning disabilities.

A WASHINGTON WIZARDS player is arrested on a charge of marijuana possession after being stopped by a traffic officer. A teacher passes out in a school restroom, allegedly from a heroin overdose. Guess which elicited more outrage?Judging from the attention paid to the travails of all-star basketball player Chris Webber, we know that people expect much from their role models who wear sneakers to work. Judging from the dearth of reaction about Howard County's Garrett M. Bradley, it's uncertain what they expect of teachers.

THERE ARE heroes and then there are heroes. They put up a statue of Arthur Ashe the other day in his hometown of Richmond, Va., on what they call the boulevard of heroes.The actual name of the street is Monument Avenue, and it's got monuments like Paris has monuments. Big heroes on big horses on a big street with big trees.The setting is majestic. But there's majesty and then there's majesty.The heroes of Monument Avenue are of the Civil War variety. And maybe Robert E. Lee is a hero. And maybe Stonewall Jackson is a hero.

Robert Eades wants young area blacks to look at his calendar each day and see that they can be successful without being basketball star Michael Jordan.It is a lesson Mr. Eades, a former drug dealer, had to learn himself."I looked in the mirror one day and said, 'I'm going to make changes in this world and in my community, but first I'm going to make a change within myself and believe in myself,' " said Mr. Eades, who has served time in jail.Now he is selling about 1,000 of his calendars to help raise money for two area youth groups.

The Door opens at 9 a.m., but it never really closes."It's a full-time job," said Joe Ehrmann. He's the former Baltimore Colt whose playing field has moved to the streets of East Baltimore, where drugs and guns compete with him for the future of Baltimore's children. But this story, at his request, is not about Joe Ehrmann. He wants you to know about The Door, not the man who opened it.The Door provides the young people in this neighborhood with the academic and spiritual means to make it in the world.

A group of seven fifth-graders clambered around the lunch table at Talbott Springs Elementary School in Columbia, eagerly awaiting their chance to arm-wrestle parent Mark Scott. "Look at these guns," Scott jokingly taunted the students as he pointed at his bicep. Starting with his 10-year-old son, Jonathan, Scott gave each one of the students an opportunity to take a shot, with no success. The kids didn't mind. And Scott loved every minute of it. Scott has been coming to the school once a month on Mondays, his day off from work, as part of the Watch DOGS (Dads of Great Students)

Like many Americans and citizens of the world, on the morning of Nov. 5, I awoke with a renewed sense of purpose. Having witnessed, the night before, an event that I never imagined contemplating, the election of an African-American to the office of president of the United States of America, I felt truly vindicated in the belief that if you live long enough, anything is possible. The night before, as I sat with family and friends watching the election results come in, I resigned myself to tempering my emotions.

A frustrated Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, facing an upsurge in crime just days into the new year, said at a news conference recently that he and the mayor can't be the only ones "trying to engage people's morality about violence in this city." That was a day after a city councilwoman and a developer were indicted on bribery charges in connection with tax breaks for a waterfront project and a day before the mayor was indicted on charges that she appropriated gift cards meant for the poor and didn't disclose lavish gifts on her public expense reports.

Role Models ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) It's no great shakes, but this tale of two energy-drink salesmen (played by Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott) who become mentors in the Sturdy Wings program for maladjusted kids allows its talented cast (including Jane Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e J. Thompson) plenty of pungent moments before it dissolves into a sea of goo. Rudd, in particular, gets a chance to display the self-deprecating charm he previously exploited to the hilt in the straight-to-video I Could Never Be Your Woman, co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

The secret to the crowd-pleasing potential of Role Models is that director David Wain cleverly tucks G-rated comedy into an R-rated wrapper. Like Zach and Miri Make a Porno but with infinitely better dialogue and pacing and an authentic feel for juvenile high spirits, Role Models has a tart surface and a heart of goo. The movie grows more obvious as it goes along. But it allows the skillfully droll Paul Rudd to display glimmers of romance and heroism that make his humor more appealing than it's ever been before.

Should professional athletes be role models for kids? Why is there even a question? Whether we want them to be or not, they are. And whether they want to be or not, they are. When I was growing up, I wanted to play tennis like Billie Jean King. My stepson, Jordan (Jordy to his friends), is named for Michael Jordan and wants to play basketball like the late NBA Hall of Famer "Pistol" Pete Maravich or Dirk Nowitzki, currently of the Dallas Mavericks.. Professional athletes have everything kids want: skill, talent, popularity and money.

Baltimore should improve access to fresh produce and recreational activities in low-income neighborhoods to stem childhood obesity, according to a City Council task force report released yesterday. "This is more serious than smoking," said City Councilwoman Agnes Welch, who has overseen the issue in the council. "Let this be a movement: We're going to stop childhood obesity in the city of Baltimore." The report recommends creating health zones in which city officials would work with schools, food stores and churches in three- to four-block areas to ensure that healthy food is available and that children have safe places to be physically active.

Cradlerock School is using the approaching Thanksgiving holiday to promote positive male role models and healthy lifestyles. On Wednesday, the school hosted its annual Meals with Magnificent Men, a lunch that encourages interaction between fathers and their kindergarten children. The lunch was not limited to fathers and was open to other family members. Central office personnel such as Steve Drummond, security coordinator for the county schools, also ate with the children. "That was a way for them to connect with the kids," said Principal Jason McCoy.

Four guys get into a fight at Woodlawn High School. One is slashed with some kind of weapon that, well, slashes. Just another reason why some folks call the school not Woodlawn High, but Hoodlawn High, right? Jamal Holloman is a 15-year-old junior at Woodlawn. He's heard that Hoodlawn High wisecrack before. So has 17-year-old Jermaine Isaac, a Woodlawn senior. But Jermaine has a quick response when people chide him about attending Hoodlawn High. "Shut up," he tells them. Jamal and Jermaine talked to me yesterday in the offices of Don Weglein, Woodlawn's principal.

"I sure hope Timothy doesn't come to school today." It was when that thought came to mind, says Frederica S. Wilson, surveying the faces at the conference table in the Miami-Dade County public schools headquarters, that she knew she had a problem. After all, she was a school principal, a black woman. And Timothy was a student, a black boy. But Timothy was also a terror, and as she drove to school, she found herself hoping he wouldn't be there. The thought shocked her. If she dreaded Timothy, she says, how must her Hispanic and white teachers have felt about him?