A good year for Ware

Onzlee Ware just completed his first year in the Virginia House of Delegates. Following long-term, popular delegate Chip Woodrum was no easy task.

Yet Ware, through has legislative accomplishments, has given legislator Woodrum something to smile about. He introduced legislation that will restrict the placing of methadone clinics in residential neighborhoods, worked with powerful Republican leader Morgan Griffith to pass a new Deer Bait law, and his vote was crucial in helping Gov. Mark Warner enact a very needed tax reform budget for the state.

The new budget increased revenue for the state’s coffers and preserved Virginia’s excellent AAA bond rating.

If Frank Sinatra were alive and knew him, he would likely say “Onzlee, it was a very good year.”

What makes Ware such a good legislator is that he intuitively understands the old political adage made famous by the late speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tip O’Neil — all politics are local. Although in Richmond, he was acutely aware of the methadone controversy brewing in Roanoke.

Local politicians and public administrators had simply taken a not-in-my-backyard and/or benign neglect position on the issue. Consequently, Ware introduced legislation that would, in the future, provide protection against the dumping of these clinics in less affluent neighborhoods by uncaring bureaucrats and uncompassionate capitalists.

Ware is quick to point out that he would not have been able to get this legislation passed without the help of local Republican House members William Fralin and Morgan Griffith.

They both had to convince their caucuses to support the novel methadone bill introduced by a maverick democrat delegate from Roanoke. Knowing that “all politics is local,” Ware is ready to cross party lines for what he believes will benefit the Roanoke Valley.

Indeed, the legislative process would a lot more efficient if more politicians thought “local” and less ideological.

This past Thursday, Gov. Warner was in town to kick-off a fund-raiser for Ware at the O. Winston Link Museum. It was a gala event. Located in the old N&W passenger station, the museum houses Link’s photographs, recordings and film of the last years of steam power on the railway. The museum was also a very appropriate place to host the fund-raiser.

In 2002,  Warner appointed Ware to the Commonwealth Transportation Board. As a board member, he was instrumental in securing needed funds to make opening the museum a reality. A plaque in the museum recognizes his contribution.

Ware is a real oddity in Richmond. He crosses party lines with regularity to take care of business but remains one of the Governor’s strongest supporters. And he is the only African American legislator from a predominantly white district to serve in the House of Delegates.

I have a good friend named Larry who lives in Petersburg. He is a native Roanoker and has only known black delegates from majority black districts from the Petersburg, Richmond and Tidewater areas to serve in Richmond. He is incredulous of Ware’s political achievement.

Like Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” Larry always wants to know if Onzlee Ware is real or simply a figment of our imagination. I always tell him to ask members of the House Black Caucus if Ware is real — he will abandon their voting bloc if a proposal is not in the interest of his home district. As the popular saying goes, Ware “keeps it real” in the legislative body.

Onzlee Ware showed real strength and character last February when, during Black History Month, he wanted former heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali recognized for a day in the House chambers. Each black house member gets to nominate a famous African American for a day’s recognition. Ware explained that Ali’s advocacy of ethnic pride, self-worth, and human dignity were an inspiration to him while growing up poor in Greensboro, N.C. However, another delegate opposed the legislation claiming that Ali had been a draft dodger during the Vietnam War.

Ware, a lawyer, quickly corrected his legislative colleague. Ali claimed he was exempt from military service because he was a conscientious objector based of his religious beliefs. Several years after refusing induction, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that Ali’s claim of CO status was both legitimate and constitutional and he did not have to enter the U.S. Army.

The Ali controversy was picked up by the national wire services. It served as a good history lesson for those who want to continue to fight the Vietnam War. “Draft Dodgers” were those who fled to Canada to avoid military induction while conscientious objectors were (are) people whose strongly held religious or philosophical beliefs, as a matter of conscience, do not allow them to fight in wars. Draft dodgers break the law —conscientious objectors are law-abiding citizens who exercise their constitutional right to avoid military service.

Ware’s proposal passed and Muhammad Ali had his day in the Virginia House of Delegates. Other black delegates had introduced less controversial African Americans as their choice. Yet, Ali (as a symbol) really meant something personal to Ware. He probably knew that nominating Ali would get challenged and was ready with the correct legal and constitutional response. As I stated earlier, the guy is a maverick.

He is also a survivor. Ware has overcome racism, poverty and a physical disability to become a successful lawyer and effective legislator. In many ways, he is the epitome of Booker T. Washington’s call for blacks to pull themselves up by the “bootstraps” and simultaneously a representative of W.E.B. Du Bois “Talented Tenth” —e ducated black men (and now women) who, through their positive actions, help dispel the vicious libel of racial inferiority.

Onzlee Ware had an incredibly effective year as a freshman legislator in the Virginia House of Delegates. Sinatra’s ends his song “It Was a Very Good Year” with the verse “It was a mess of good years.” Hopefully, at the end of his legislative days, his colleagues and historians will assess his political career in the same manner.