Send Page to a Friend Willie Horton resurrected   By Rev. Ray A. Hammond and Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown Boston Herald   It has often been said that politics is a blood sport in Massachusetts. We've learned to expect tough and hard-hitting campaigns between candidates for political office.    Nonetheless, a recent campaign ad paid for by the Healey for Governor Committee crosses a line in our political discourse. It shows an anxious, attractive white woman crossing a dimly lit parking lot, while the voice-over alleges that the black male candidate, Deval Patrick, "praised" a black male rapist, Benjamin LaGuer.    We are not surprised but we are saddened. We are not surprised because the careful juxtaposition of a defenseless white woman and a black male rapist is an old theme in American social and political history.    Apologists for American slavery invoked that theme regularly as justification for that "peculiar institution." The politicians who crafted Jim Crow segregation and the brutal enforcers of that segregation, like the Ku Klux Klan, used that theme as justification for their actions. And in more modern times, politicians and political campaigns have found that theme useful as a way of arousing the fears of white suburban and rural voters.    This theme was put to great use in the race between George H.W. Bush and Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988 when Dukakis was blamed for the release of a black rapist, Willie Horton, who terrorized a white couple in Maryland. Now that theme has reared its ugly head in the current gubernatorial race.    We are not surprised but we are saddened. And we are saddened because this manipulative use of race and sex obstructs the kind of dialogue and partnership around crime and public safety our commonwealth needs.    We need to talk honestly and openly about crime and no one is more committed to working on public safety issues than we are.    That's why we have worked, along with many faith-based, community, law enforcement, public sector and philanthropic partners over almost 15 years to address those issues.    That's why we have labored, on a nonpartisan basis, with Democratic and Republican politicians, including Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, to address gang violence, witness protection, victim services, and violence prevention.    That's why we, along with other members of the Black Ministerial Alliance, Boston Ten Point Coalition, Dorchester Youth Collaborative, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Jewish Community Relations Council, and Massachusetts Communities Action Network have invited both major candidates to come and talk to people who care about these public safety issues and are from the communities most affected by crime and violence.    Despite our willingness to adjust times and dates, the lieutenant governor has turned down all three of our invitations.    It was not unfair to question Dukakis' position on prison furloughs and it is not unfair to question Patrick's or Healey's record on public safety. But the way those questions are raised makes all the difference.    Public safety is too important an issue to be used as a political football. It is a life-and-death issue that affects people of all colors - women and men, boys and girls that we live with, work with, and love. Securing their safety and our safety requires all of us to take responsibility and work together across the barriers of race, class, gender and geography.    To put it another way, if we or our political leaders really care about crime and public safety, the last thing we can afford is the cynical manipulation of our fears and the exploitation of our racial and gender differences.    Let's put an end to Willie Horton politics. We and our children deserve better.