NAACP requests meeting with Bush

• Originally published in the St. Petersburg Times (Florida) February 20

Copyright 2005 Times Publishing Company

Denouncing President Bush's plan for Social Security reform as one that would disproportionately hurt blacks, NAACP leaders asked to meet with the president to discuss the issue, the group's chairman announced Saturday.

Julian Bond, speaking at a news conference during the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual meeting in New York, also said he expects to name the organization's new president by July.

"I want someone with the fundraising ability of Bill Gates, with the oratorical ability of Martin Luther King and the managerial ability of someone who's managed big, big things successfully and done well," said Bond, who has repeatedly declined to identify potential candidates.

A search committee has interviewed more than 200 candidates to replace Kweisi Mfume, who was NAACP president for nine years and resigned in December.

Last week, NAACP leaders asked to meet with the president, submitting a letter to the White House that detailed their concerns over education and unemployment, but focused largely on Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.

"This proposal is extremely dangerous to us," said Hilary O. Shelton, the NAACP's Washington bureau chief.

Among married couples, twice as many blacks as whites rely on Social Security for their entire retirement income, and blacks in their 50s are twice as likely to become disabled as whites, he said.

But Bush says blacks would stand to benefit from his privatization plan because, on average, they die earlier than whites and would not have to wait until retirement to receive benefits.

That argument has rankled many black leaders who denounced the president for trying to capitalize on the life-expectancy problem - one they say is rooted in health disparities and urban violence - rather than solve it.