Kevin McCullough
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002

He lies dormant for days or weeks at a time. Then out of nowhere, he trains his sights on a target, carefully fine-tunes the focus on his scope, and pulls the trigger. The only difference between him and the guy who has eluded police for weeks in the D.C. area is that here in Chicago the sniper does it publicly and has gotten away with it for years.

After all, he's a radio talk show host and no matter what comes out of a radio talk show host's mouth, it's excusable, right? Thus, this Chicago sniper shall be called Cool Kat.

Cool Kat is as left wing as can be found. In the portion of his radio program I heard last week, he berated Missouri Democrat Richard Gephardt, minority leader in Congress, for voting with the administration on the issue of Iraq. Anyone who criticizes Richard Gephardt for being too conservative clearly exposes just how left of center they truly are.

But at least this confrontation was a fair fight. It was obvious the congressman was uncomfortable and eventually feigned the "I'm being called away" excuse to finally get out of the discussion. The criticism, though, was at least face to face. Kudos to Cool Kat.

Cool Kat is also highly connected. His reach goes deep into the NAACP. He holds important positions in the decision-making process with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. His leftist tendencies certainly spill over into these areas of "community service" as well.

Cool Kat is sly. He values himself as being the "voice of black Chicago." He was even so bold as to tell the congressman that his show was the show that would influence the entire black community.

What is probably a more accurate statement is that Cool Kat hosts a show in which no shred of dissenting opinion is ever allowed to be voiced. His callers evidently believe almost everything that CK says.

He was once named by another prominent African-American in Chicago media as "the Chicago Black Rush Limbaugh" in terms of his following. His ideology being, of course, polar opposite.

Cool Kat is on record as having used the "F" bomb on one of Chicago's most beloved daily columnists (herself an African-American). To anyone's knowledge there was never any action taken by FCC or any community leaders. This is why and how the Cool Kat continues to thrive, sniping one victim at a time.

It is unfortunate that there is no better path for African-American clergy to appeal to when they desire to get their message out to the black community. They are required to go into Cool Kat's den and, with beads of sweat upon their furrowed brows, walk the Kat's high wire, lest their legitimate cause or message becomes Cool Kat's latest road kill.

What is more unfortunate was how Cool Kat dealt with one of the finest African-American women to come along in the last decade: Miss America, Erika Harold. It was unfortunate on many levels.

Miss Harold is a shining example of what every American parent should want their child to grow up to be. Called "The Smart One" by USA Today, Erika has exuded a level of intelligence seldom seen in current icons and role models. She has been accepted but has delayed by a year the beginning of her work at Harvard Law School, because of her commitments to the Miss America organization.

Miss Harold's platform message is against violence and bullying, herself having been a victim of such treatment. But instead of remaining the victim, she has empowered herself to position herself to produce change for others.

Another large part of Erika's work has been in getting out the message that it is truly a safer path to abstain from sexual activity until marriage and, once married, to remain monogamous for life. Her work with the extremely reputable organization known as Project Reality has seen tremendous response. Kathleen Sullivan, the founder of Project Reality, has testified numerous times that some of the organization's best work has been in urban centers – city areas, public schools.

But the truth matters not to the sniper known as Cool Kat, who instead pronounces on his show that Project Reality's objectives are nothing more than humorous. He alleges that Miss Harold could never be abstinent – that no one truly can. He alleges that if she is abstinent it is perhaps because she has lesbian tendencies. He alleges that her faith is insincere, her cause is phony, and that she is a loose woman in the moral sense of the word.

The broadcast in which these damning statements were made happened one week ago. These allegations were brought against one of the finest African-American role models to ever come along. These allegations were brought against a black woman who has achieved what many told her family generations before they would never achieve.

Where is the outrage by African-Americans? Where is the level of insult in which a person of character is allowed to be slimed by someone viewed as a "powerful icon," with no consequence. Why was there no word spoken in rebuke from black clergy in Illinois over the slandering of their favored daughter? Why is the Cool Kat "sniper" allowed to continually assassinate people of character?

It is my hope that Cool Kat will invite Erika onto his show. It is my hope that he will grill her harder than any congressman he's ever faced off against. For in doing so, two things would happen. One, Cool Kat would realize what a drastic error in judgment he has exercised over trying to match wits with someone far smarter than he estimated, and secondly, he would find that he liked her, that she is winsome, and one can't help but be inspired simply from knowing her.

So, is the Cool Kat up for it? I know Miss America is ...

Kevin McCullough and Deborah Rowe are enjoyed weekdays 3-5 p.m. on AM 1160 WYLL, a 50,000-watt station in Chicago, Ill., www.wyll.com. Kevin may be reached at kmc@wyll.com.

Editor's note:
Liberals’ attacks on America - in their own words!