Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 1

itff Jk Tuesday January 20, 1998 Decatur, Illinois Serving Central Illinois Since 1873 if 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their The Rev. Martin Luther King Aug. 28, 1963 i X. If i rv" ll i hnJ mm Associated Press The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

would have been 69 years old today. til rfi0'fst- 1 I ftp i i 1 Li By STEPHANIE ERICKSON Staff Writer DECATUR Sixty-nine years after his birth and nearly 30 years after his assassination a few hundred people in Decatur marched together Monday to celebrate his dream. But participants in the 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day March offered varying opinions about what the slain civil rights leader would think of the state of race relations if he were alive today. "Dr.

King would probably be appalled at the situation," said James Wills of Decatur. "We are still struggling for equality in employment. People still discriminate because of the color of your skin." Wills says racism is as strong today as 30 years ago just more covert. "And it's more dangerous that way," he said. Terressa Ricks, 48, of Decatur disagreed somewhat.

Race relations, she said, "have changed for the better." Theresa Gray, 46, of Decatur said, "I don't think (King) would be too pleased." Both Ricks and Gray said they attend the march each year. It was Kim Crosby's first. The 23-year-old white woman who moved from Portland six months ago walked Mtfy 1998 1 i 1 Herald Review photosKelly J. Huff WE SHALL OVERCOME: The Rev. Danny Humphrey leads the group of marchers Monday from Mueller Park as they travel down Martin Luther King Jr.

Drive during the 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. Below left, Theresa Gray of Decatur listens carefully to a host of speakers at St. Patrick Church. Below right, Marguerite Walker, right, LaVerne Gude and a woman identifying herself only as Debbie march hand-in-hand Monday down Martin Luther King Jr.

Drive singing 'We Shall Two groups of marchers started from Mueller Park and Hess Park, coming together at North Street before attending a service at St. Patrick Church. One dead in parade shooting BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) A simmering fight erupted into gunfire at a Martin Luther King Day parade on Monday, killing a man whose brother was in the march and wounding three children watching the festivities. The dispute involved four or five people, some participants in the march, Police Chief Greg Phares said at an evening news conference.

He said they had been feuding and a fight broke out just before the shooting. "There was no racial, political or hate crime motive," Phares said. He gave no other details of the dispute, but said there was no ambush those involved had been together. Police were searching for at least one shooter. Phares would not give his name or say whether he was marching.

All the victims appeared to be bystanders. Cpl. Don Kelly, a police spokesman, described the aftermath of the shooting as "mass pandemonium." In the debris left by fleeing marchers was a picture of King, splattered with blood. "It went pop, pop, pop, pop four shots right off," she said, "Then people began running everywhere" Killed was James Carter, 20, who lived nearby with his mother. Relatives said he was watching the parade, walking along beside the band in which his 17-year-old brother was playing bass drum.

A 7-year-old girl was in critical condition with a gunshot wound in the back. An 11-year-old girl shot in the leg and hand was in stable condition and a 9-year-old boy, shot in the leg, was in guarded condition. Their names were not released. Civil rights spending may rise ATLANTA (AP) In a sermonlike speech from the Rev. Martin Luther King former pulpit, Vice President Al Gore marked the King holiday Monday by laying out a plan to increase civil rights spending by $86 million.

The Clinton administration will propose spending $602 million to enforce civil rights laws in the 1999 budget, up from $516 million this year, Gore said. "This is a priority. That is why it received such an enormous increase when almost everything else in the budget is being decreased," Gore said at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Elsewhere around the nation, the slain civil rights leader was remembered with prayers, service projects, parades and, for the first time, a halt in trading on U.S. financial markets.

King would have turned 69 last week. Gunfire at a King Day parade in Baton Rouge, killed one person and wounded three young children. Police said race was not believed to be a factor. Gore, speaking to a crowd that included King's widow, adopted a more animated, almost fire-and-brimstone style, compared with his usual deliberate tone. He used the Bible story of Joseph being left for dead by his brothers to address contemporary violence.

"They felt disrespected be- GORE pE? iVW! 0' alongside her dog, Sissy. She marched "for injustices that still exist." "And it's a time to come together and celebrate our differences," she said. Wills said he was not impressed by the turnout for Monday's march which saw two groups converge on St. Patrick Church from opposite ends of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

"We should have many more out here," he said. Those who did participate said they braved Monday's cold temperatures to help keep King's dream alive. Their thoughts fit well with the theme of this year's march "Today's Dream, Tomorrow's Future" Five of Wills' seven children attended the march. Four marched southward from Hess Park, while Wills marched northward from Mueller Park alongside his 16-year-old son, James Wills Jr. "I constantly tell him that he'll have to go through some things because of the color of his skin," the senior Wills said.

"But I instill in 1 "LU Jjjg tT'TiM Ill Ml MUM I I Ml I' 'X King banquet Brotherly atmosphere at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. banquet in Decatur shows there may be reason for hope. Central Illinois A3 him love. Whether you're black or white, you can overcome these things with love" At an interdenominational service following the march in a packed St.

Patrick Church, Wayne Dunning said something similar DREAM Continued on A3 Continued on A5 students in mmrmm Girls results Maroa-Forsyth 63, Meridian 57 "arrensburg-Latham 71, St. Teresa 49 aylorvilieb, Ignatius 42 44 Sports B2 MEXICO-" GUATEMALA HONDURAS Guatemala City Legendary jazz musician Bob Haggert will appear for first time at the Central Illinois Jazz Fesitval. Celebrate C1 SANTA LUCIA COTZUMAL-GUAPA, Guatemala (AP) Guatemalan security forces have arrested four suspects and were hunting for three others Monday after five American college students were raped in a daylight ambush of their bus. The rapes and robbery of the students from St. Mary's College in Maryland, on an anthropology tour of Guatemala, provoked outrage in the United States and calls here to end surging lawlessness.

The student group's pink-and-white bus was forced off the highway Friday afternoon into a sugar cane field by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks, police said at the scene here, 45 miles The detective said the two men captured Monday were not soldiers but had been found with a duffel bag full of uniforms and camouflage rain slickers. He said it was not known why the men had such gear. The students, 12 women and one man, were returning to Guatemala City after a tour of historic and cultural sites. They were accompanied by two male faculty members and a female administrator from St. Mary's College, a public, four-year liberal arts school 70 miles southeast of Washington.

In Washington, President Clinton decried Friday's ambush and said he was confident that Guatemalan authorities southwest of Guatemala City. Vowing to obtain justice, Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza said two suspects were arrested soon after Friday's attack and had provided the names of their accomplices reportedly seven in all. "The security forces are trying to capture the (suspects) so that they can face the full force of the law," said Mendoza, who declined to discuss specifics of the case in which five young women were raped. A police detective told TTie Associated Press that two more men had been detained Monday in Guatemala City and taken to a prison in the capital city. "This group specialized in will handle the case appropriately.

"I have a lot of concern, obviously, for the victims and their families," Clinton told reporters. "It's a terrible thing. We are persuaded the government is taking appropriate action." The U.S. State Department does not warn American citizens against traveling to Guatemala. However, its consular information sheet does note that crime has been increasing in the country.

The department said entire groups of American tourists have been victims of rape, kidnappings, violent assaults and shootings. EL SALVADOR Pacific Ocean AP robbing long-distance tour buses. They have been operating for some time," said the detective, who spoke on condition of anonymity. TODAY: Mostly cloudy. High of 34.

TONIGHT: Chance of light snow. Low 29. Details B6 Netanyahu receives Christian support FDA says no human cloning without OK Ann Landers C4 Obituaries A7 Business D1 Opinion A6 Comics C6 Puzzles Celebrate C1-6 Sports B1 cloning bills don't also ban life-saving medical research. "It's been a public and media assumption that there is nothing on the books that would even slow or stop Dr. Seed," said Carl Feldbaum of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents biotechnologists involved in cloning research.

FDA intervention "creates at least some breathing space." FDA investigators plan to CLONING Continued on A5 WASHINGTON (AP) The Food and Drug Administration has a warning for the Chicago physicist who wants to clone a human: The agency will shut down anyone who tries without its permission. Richard Seed's cloning plans have sparked a public outcry and a race by Congress and more than a dozen states to ban cloning. With the FDA filling what critics had called a regulatory vacuum, scientists say lawmakers should take more time to ensure vaguely worded anti- X3 Television C4 Movies WASHINGTON (AP) Buoyed by stirring support from evangelical Christians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began what could be a difficult visit here Monday with a demand that Palestinians cancel their call for Israel's destruction. By all accounts, Netanyahu is bringing to President Clinton a proposal for a modest pull-back on the West Bank, one that may fall short of the administration's expectations and certainly of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's dreams. But Clinton said he had "high hopes" of reviving the Mideast peace process in separate talks this week with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

He assured Israel of his support and said the Palestinians, not just Israel, had to make concessions to breathe life into Mideast peacemaking. Netanyahu, speaking hoarsely but sounding a rousing theme, told a widely enthusiastic Christian group that "there is no peace with weakness." The Rev. Jerry Falwell keynoted the reception in a crowded hotel ballroom by declaring: "Israel loves America, and that's why I support Israel. I love democracy, and Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East." Falwell, who also met separately with Netanyahu, said: "I accept the convenant of Abraham and I believe God blesses those who bless SUPPORT Continued on A5 50 cents Our 125th year Issue 20 Four sections III 02138 "OOOOl 1 Qa BfflBTmfBMBB CBmraEbBMBB Qmmktmmm QSmilflCEhrfBKlED QmtM.