IN RESPONSE TO JOSÉ Padua’s “The Mayor’s Race”(10/28), I offer only these words: get over it. I am disgusted by the virulent racism that still exists in this country and realize that it is not limited to blacks. But to suggest that the District’s white population is lining up behind Carol Schwartz because we are afraid of living under “a black man who acts like a black man” (however a black man is supposed to act) is preposterous.

Marion Barry is not an evil man. He is an ineffective politician, and we haven’t been offered a good reason to give him a second chance. After a good start, he let himself fall prey to special interests and the trappings of a powerful position to the detriment of all the residents of this city, particularly those who he professes to watch out for. Could it be that Padua doesn’t want to live in a city where a white woman tells it like it is? Let’s get beyond race and elect the best candidate for a change.

Adams Morgan