Just me and the Governor

Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder is someone from the history books: the first and only black governor in the United States – and a professor here at VCU.

Born and raised in Church Hill, the Governor is coming out of semi-retirement to run for a position that will give him no more political prestige than he already has – Richmond mayor. But he is running for a different reason than to climb the political power ladder. Governor Wilder is doing it because there’s no place like home.

“I didn’t need the title; I could rest on my laurels. But Richmond’s my home, and I’ve lived here all my life. And I’m not happy with the way things are going,” Wilder said.

While elaborating on the subject of Richmond’s sad condition the former governor pointed out how recently “at great expense” current Mayor Rudy McCollum published a colorful pro-Richmond brochure in the Times-Dispatch bragging about how great the city is doing while trying to take credit for its accomplishments. The Governor said he was not fooled.

“If you look at it, you would think Richmond’s the grandest place. But if you look in [the brochure], you will not see a single word about education. I’m here to tell you that Richmond lost 3500 jobs in the last two years.” The Governor went on to tell more of Richmond’s woes.

Governor Wilder said the biggest problem facing Richmond is our high crime rate. “Boston today is screaming because they are saying, ‘we have 53 murders in Boston, what are we going to do?'”

Boston, he said, is more than three times the size of Richmond. Richmond has had 73 murders this year.

“Richmond has less than 200,000 people with 73 murders already. This year! And what do you read about it in terms of crime.”

He pointed to the pamphlet, “City records lowest annual homicide rate in nearly two decades and they continue to remain well below the all time high nearly 10 years ago.”

The all-time high he noted was near 150 homicides.

He turned back to the pamphlet.

“‘City enjoys strongest financial health in more than 20 years.’ We lost 3500 jobs. That’s the strongest financial health we’ve had?”

Then VCU came up. Referring to the VCU Medical Center’s excellent health care, the Governor said, “The homicide rate would be much higher if those persons didn’t have emergency care treatment right away after they’ve been shot and done in and the city pays nothing for it. In many major cities the cities have to pay up for health care. Not Richmond.”

“How will we bring the business back into the city?”
“Get rid of the crime.”

“How do we stop the crime?”
“Easily. Take charge. Be in charge. The Chief of Police from Charleston, South Carolina, came up to tell us how to recognize open-air drug markets. My comment to that was if Stevie Wonder can and Ray Charles could – before he died – recognize them, you could too! They’re right there!”

The topic then changed to our civil liberties. The Governor was outraged with the ferocity with which the city secludes its officials away from the public whom they serve.

“You go to City Hall and first you have to be frisked and searched! What the hell is somebody going to do to someone in City Hall? They built a wall around the General Assembly! If you dropped a bomb and every member of the General Assembly and the Governor and Lt. Governor was blown up, you’d get someone else. They’re not essential. You understand what I’m saying?”

“Government officials should be -“

“Open to the public. If you get to the point when you are so protected, oh man, I don’t like that, I want you [the government official] to be available.”

The subject then changed again, this time to the city’s work ethic.

“Five guys come out, one is sitting there sleeping, one guy is doing [the job], three others are standing around doing nothing. It reminded me of when I was in a communist country, in Hungary. They had no incentive to work. Here, you’re paying people. Cosby said to me, why are there weeds around Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue?”

“What do you think about public transportation? I heard you got on a bus -“

“And rode all over town! That’s the only way you learn what’s going on. You get off the bus and you got weeds all over the sidewalk.”

“It costs $1.65 to ride a bus, one way. That’s a lot of money. You think people ride the bus because they like it? No, they ride it because they have to. And yet they [the city council] raised the bus fare.”

But don’t worry, VCU. The Governor promises,

“Help will be on the way, that’s all you need to tell your readers.”

But I think I also need to tell you: “Vote or Die!” And more specifically, “Vote Wilder for Mayor!”

We need to remember as students at VCU that Richmond is our city, even if we are from Northern Viginia, Virginia Beach, or wherever else we may be from. As Richmonders we should be concerned with our city’s elected officials, especially that of mayor now that there is an at-large election that the Governor won for us through tireless efforts.

Op/Ed writer Alexander Marra interviewed former Governor Wilder. Some of Marra’s comments have been included in italics.