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Here's some good city government news, folks: On Monday morning, whichever way the Roanoke City Council votes, it won't screw up.

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For those (including Hillary Clinton) so steadfast in saying that if they were Barack Obama, they would have bolted Dr. Jeremiah Wright's church: How often have you sat mum as you heard friends and loved ones tell racist jokes?

Michel Martin of NPR suggests "if the tables had been turned, if it had been their church, their family, their friends, their turf, they would have sat right there."

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Spurred by the memory of his long-deceased mother, Junius Gaither answered the call of conscience.

At 78, the Roanoke man has joined Scout Leader Bob Bird on several occasions in recent weeks to restore some semblance of dignity to Springwood Burial Park. The urban cemetery in Northwest is the final resting place of Gaither's mother and more than a thousand other area blacks who died between 1937 and 1979.

"Personally, I just marvel at the amount of work they've done," Gaither said Thursday morning as he walked along a path that Bird and his Scouts have cleared. "It spurred me to come over."

My wish is that others would follow Gaither's lead.

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On this, the holiest day in Christendom, when forgiveness and redemption are the center of our celebration, what would Jesus do about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

Well, I doubt he'd hijack the presidential campaign of one of Wright's flock.

Any churchgoing voter in America knows you can't control what comes out of the mouth of clergy. Often the words are inspiring. Frequently they are benign. Occasionally they are outrageous.

Whatever the pastor's words or actions, you don't hold members of his (or her) church individually accountable for them. Just ask the followers of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Al Sharpton, Oral Roberts, Ted Haggard or John Hagee.

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OK, folks, we broached the idea earlier of a McCain-Rice ticket. How's about a McCain-Powell ticket?

More intriguing, but way too early to be considered is talk of an Obama-Powell pairing.
Pro: Obama sought Powell's counsel as early as last summer on foreign policy matters, and Powell has given Obama props as a candidate.

Con: Powell has said repeatedly he's not interested in elective office. Additionally, would someone who supported the Iraq war (at least ostensibly) and sold it (and a bill of goods) to the American people make a good running mate for a man who has partially staked his fame on his opposition to America's invasion of Iraq?

Let's not leave Clinton out of the mix: By showing all this love to John McCain, is she positioning herself for a No. 2 spot on the McCain ticket?

OK, gang, maybe this all is sorta loopy...but hit me back with your thoughts.

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A Roanoke police officer shot an unarmed teenage boy after a traffic stop last month.

The shooting in Northwest Roanoke set off a flurry of letters to this newspaper's opinion page about the dangers of law enforcement and what officers should or should not do in a given situation.

No one disputes the risks of police work. But it's difficult for the public to arrive at a fully informed opinion -- whatever the opinion -- when it doesn't have the basic facts of the shooting.

For that, Roanokers can thank their police department.

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Thank you, HomeTown Bank, on behalf of the Antoinette Kimbles of the Roanoke Valley.

By backing off its short-sighted construction plans for a new branch on Electric Road, HomeTown will make the disabled feel welcome along with everyone else conducting business in the lobby.

That's understandably important to people such as Kimble, who has been in a wheelchair for two months. She said she banks at Woodforest National Bank inside Wal-Mart, where the teller windows and automated teller machine are low enough for wheelchair users.

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Batten down the hatches, folks. We may have witnessed a bit of immigration hysteria in Bedford County.

Monday, the county board of supervisors rejected a proposal by Forest builder David St. John after he acknowledged the town houses he wanted to build would be for seasonal workers he hires from -- gasp! -- Mexico.

St. John, a soft-spoken man, didn't want to wade into the fiery immigration debate that has engulfed this country when we spoke Wednesday afternoon.

"I don't know what was in the thoughts of the board," he said politely. "That's a good question for the board members."

But come on, what else can it be?

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We've seen it before, we saw it again: Eliot Spitzer solicited hookers, and standing by her man was his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer. The Harvard-educated lawyer, I'm referring to Silda, looked as though she'd been up all night crying.

She probably had been.

Dag, the scenario has played out so often: Men have been in hot spots, and their loyal spouse has stood there, being, well, loyal. Is it me or am I the only one who'd seriously think, "Buddy, you're on your own on this one"?

Think about how the scene has played out so many times:

Gary Hart's wife, Lee, standing next to him when the world found out about his "Monkey Business"

Dina McGreevey stood on the dais with her husband former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey after he admitted to having an extramarital homosexual affair

And who can forget Effie Barry knitting (or was it crocheting?) in court as she sat in support of her husband Marion?

Last month, in my home state, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was foolish enough to lie under oath about his affair with his female chief of staff. Didn't he know that those steamy text messages that documented their trysts would eventually surface? They did. Guess who was there when he apologized to city residents? That's right: wife Carlita Kilpatrick.

I've never been married, but is standing there with a pained, "I want to choke the ever-living crap out of this bonehead" a test of the "for better or worse" reference in the wedding vows? These women's obvious pain and humiliation break my heart every time I see one of these situations.

To add a little levity to the moment, my favorite line in light of the Spitzer moment came from Joy Behar of The View:

"Aren’t you sick of men? Viagra is destroying our government."

Would I be wrong to assume your support of Obama is because he is African American? -- Feb. 28 e-mail from a Hillary Clinton supporter

Inevitably, the question would come up.

Barack Obama, the presidential candidate who just last year was the subject of headlines asking whether he was black enough, has become a favorite of black voters.

Apparently, that bothers some white folks.

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