Goodbye to Sutton…During the State of the State

I love a good juxtaposition. And the one yesterday was striking.
There was a funeral for Percy Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president and key African-American figure who was known as part of the “Gang of Four” in Harlem. The other, surviving members of that much-heralded group: Rep. Charles Rangel, former Mayor David Dinkins and Basil Paterson.
The other event yesterday, oddly and powerfully related to the first, was the State of the State Address by Gov. David Paterson, Basil Paterson’s son.
So striking to think of these two events going on simultaneously. Could Percy Sutton, in his youth, have ever anticipated the day when New York would have an African-American governor? Or, better yet, president? I thought the State of the State provided a compelling background for Sutton remembrances…and that, conversely, it must have been something for Paterson to stand in the Statehouse in Albany on the same afternoon, knowing that his friend and a mentor was being laid to rest. If you made a novel with these characters and themes, the critics would say you were stretching things beyond what might be credible.
Something else helped yesterday, namely that the governor gave a good, honest, smart but simple address. He has a long way to go in terms of making himself a viable candidate for re-election, and just about everyone has decided that the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, will be our next governor. But there’s some fight left in this fellow Paterson, enough to make it a more interesting year than it might have been. And he should get credit for being on the right side of history with his remarks, particularly when it comes to his call for ethics reform in a capital city that absolutely needs dramatic change.