The Deafening Silence on Capitol Hill

When young hoodlums beat and raped a woman in Central Park last month, there was a call for black and other minority leaders to denounce them.

The accused youths are all members of minority groups. And some felt if minority leaders did not denounce them, the silence could be seen as an “endorsement” of hooliganism.

Now, we have a case of the shoe being on the other foot. Now, we have a perfect time for white leaders, white elected leaders, to denounce a white crime.

But even though the crime has been national news for more than a week, I have heard no denunciations. I have heard nothing but silence.

The story was broken by Ken Ringle of the Washington Post on May 4. It has since been picked up by numerous national publications (View, May 5). These are the facts:

In 1973, a 20-year-old college student named Pamela Small went into a discount store in suburban Virginia to buy some things for her first apartment.

When she took her purchases to the counter, she noticed a flaw in some window blinds. The manager said he had more in the storeroom and asked Small to come with him to pick out the ones she wanted.

“Once inside, however, he blocked the door and ordered her to lie face down on the floor. When she refused--when, with growing panic, she tried to talk her way to freedom--he grabbed a hammer and slammed it into her skull.

“She immediately lost consciousness but he continued pounding, exposing the skull in five places. Then he grabbed a steak knife, stabbed her five times in the left breast and shoulder near her heart, and slashed her repeatedly across the throat.”

He then took her limp body out to her car, drove around for a while, and finally parked in an alley behind the store. Then he went to the movies.

Amazingly, Small regained consciousness about eight hours later and managed to drive for help. A general surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a neurosurgeon and a thoracic surgeon spent seven hours trying to repair the damage. Small then spent a year undergoing plastic surgery.

Her attacker, John Mack, was arrested. He pleaded guilty to malicious wounding and was sentenced to 15 years, with seven suspended, in the Virginia State Penitentiary.

But he never spent a day in the penitentiary. He spent 27 months “in the more civilized confines of the Fairfax County Jail” instead. And then he was paroled. He was paroled to become staff assistant to U.S. Rep. James Wright (D-Tex.).

Wright offered Mack the job before he was sentenced, which certainly made an impression on the judge. Wright also wrote letters for Mack. Wright did everything he could for Mack.

And why did the case of a hammer-wielding, knife-slashing felon interest Jim Wright? Well, because Wright’s daughter was married to Mack’s brother.

Today, Mack is 35 and Wright’s right-hand man, perhaps the most powerful staff member on Capitol Hill. He is executive director of the congressional Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and makes about $89,500 a year. As Post reporter Ringle pointed out: “As a convicted felon, Mack is barred by law from voting or obtaining a security clearance. But as the Speaker’s closest aide, he helps enact the nation’s laws.”

And though the victim, Pamela Small, incurred thousands of dollars in medical bills, her attacker, John Mack, has never paid a cent. He has never even told her he is sorry.

“I served 2 1/2 years in prison,” Mack said. “That’s all they asked me to do.”

If you think people are outraged by all this, you are correct. But what about the anger on Capitol Hill? What about the outrage from Mack’s colleagues?

Well, a TV crew went out recently to Capitol Hill to interview staff members. And nobody would talk. Nobody. Off camera, they said the same thing: They were afraid. Speaker of the House Wright and John Mack were too powerful to cross.

But how about those people whose careers don’t depend on Wright and Mack? How about the elected representatives of the people?

How about U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Calif.), for instance, the majority whip of the House? Isn’t he outraged by the attack, the blatant favoritism, the lack of any decency toward the victim?

No, he is not. “Rightly or wrongly,” Coelho said, “under our system of law John Mack owed his debt to society, not to this woman.”

Well, thank you, Tony. And I’m sure you would feel the same way if someone close to you were bludgeoned and slashed in a storeroom and left for dead.

Coelho has special insights into Mack, you see. He golfs with John Mack. John Mack, Coelho says, is “very close” to him.

Coelho does not golf with Pamela Small. She is not “very close” to him. She is not a shaker and mover. She is not a power broker on Capitol Hill. She is just a nobody. A zero. A citizen.

So why should she count?

Those vicious thugs who went “wilding” in Central Park should be denounced. But so should John Mack.

Favored treatment is not the same as rehabilitation. No debt has been paid to Small or society. And somebody, some of our elected leadership, should say so.

Instead there is silence. Our leaders are afraid. Gutless. Cowering.

Or else they are off playing golf.