Choice of speaker could cut turnout

Anne Arundel NAACP is criticized for picking Obama's former pastor

Perry Ealim was elated to learn that he had won a local business award from the Anne Arundel County NAACP, and he sent a mass e-mail asking friends and associates, largely fellow Republicans, to join him at the Nov. 20 award ceremony.

But most aren't so eager to dine with the evening's guest speaker, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who is President Obama's controversial former pastor.

"I am happy for your honor, however I cannot support an organization that would have a racist/bigot such as Mr. Wright as [its] speaker," wrote James Pelura, chairman of the Maryland Republican Party.

"I am disappointed that you are not reprimanding the NAACP," another wrote.

Local Republican officials, including County Executive John R. Leopold, who have honored Ealim for his work on minority businesses, aren't going. Most of the Democrats Ealim knows happen to be busy that evening, too.

Ealim, who is black, said that refusing to attend Wright's speech is "more divisive than anything he could say." He said he does not agree with some of Wright's comments and does not support all of the NAACP's positions.

"I am intelligent enough that I can listen to someone talk and separate truth from non-truth," he said.

Wright, the minister at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama was a longtime member, grabbed national attention during the presidential campaign last year. Internet videos of old sermons showed Wright saying that Sept. 11, 2001, was the country's "chickens coming home to roost."

Pelura said that he is happy for Ealim but that the situation is "akin to an organization honoring someone and having an ex-grand knight of the KKK be the speaker. We have enough of [Wright's] comments out there to show how he feels about whites and about America."

Jacqueline Boone Allsup, president of the county NAACP, said the selection of Wright as a speaker has drawn complaints.

"We believe he should not be judged by snippets of newscasts, but rather on citizens having the opportunity to hear him for themselves and make their own judgments," Allsup said.

Ealim, 57, owns Merge Business Development Systems, which trains minority and women business owners. He has been active in trying to steer contracts associated with the military's base realignment process to local small businesses.