Instead, the 48th annual Lincoln Heights Days Family Reunion has turned into a racially charged ordeal before it has even begun, thanks to some of the adults involved.

        It's just another snapshot in the family album of racial dysfunction in the Tristate. Why can't we change this picture?

        Lincoln Heights, a predominantly African-American village, searched several months for a company to provide amusement rides at its annual shindig. Last year, the festival drew 7,000 people.

        The small village of 4,113 reached an oral agreement with Star Amusements, a family-owned Covington, Ky., company, to supply and staff two rides and a game trailer for the event, which runs Saturday through Monday.

        Instead, on Aug. 20 — just 11 days before the festival — a woman at Star Amusements called to cancel. She said “you people” tear up the rides, says Patricia Stearns, co-chair of the festival committee.

        That call came after some black youths marred the Midwest Black Family Reunion downtown, assaulting people and damaging cars and buses.

Racial fears

        Ms. Stearns has called the cancellation racial discrimination. Other city events have caused no problems, she says.

        Star Amusements owner Adam Wietholter says the cancellation wasn't discriminatory but an issue of security. The woman who called from his company, he says, “went too far.”

        Mr. Wietholter worked through the Rev. Raymond Jones, executive director of Cincinnati Concerned Citizens Association, to broker a new deal in which Lincoln Heights provides at least three police officers on each day of the event.

        At first, festival planners agreed. But by Wednesday, just three days before the event, the committee changed its mind and voted to try to find someone else to provide the rides, a difficult prospect on such short notice.

        Committee members, Ms. Stearns explains, “didn't feel the crowd would be accepting” of Star Amusements. Some worried that children would be mistreated.

        “We want our event to be successful. If Star Amusements would have come out, this event would not have been as successful as we would have liked it to be,” she says.

        Now Star Amusements claims it's being unfairly punished for a misunderstanding. Mr. Wietholter has said he turned down two other fairs to live up to his commitment to Lincoln Heights. His company's reputation is suffering.

For children's sake

        The Rev. Mr. Jones, whose group tries to promote racial understanding, says some Lincoln Heights business owners and residents are upset with the committee.

        “They need to put aside the hatred in what the lady said and think about the kids,” says the Rev. Mr. Jones, who lives in Cincinnati.

        He still hopes Lincoln Heights reconsiders, but, just in case, he's soliciting donations for other activities for the kids.

        There's no reason the children should suffer more because some adults are incapable of moving beyond ignorance and racial conflict, he says.

        I agree, although I understand festival organizers' reluctance to trust Star Amusements. They're justified in their anger.

        But they should get over that, and remember that this weekend's festivities are for children. If Star lives up to its end of the bargain, fair organizers can keep an eye on things and transform this ugly episode into a lesson in racial problem-solving.

        We adults should stop passing on our resentments to our children. We ought to let them have a little fun instead.

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or call 768-8395.

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