Practically speaking, Gordon's observations are born out by the following:

Barely one in four blacks support legalization of gay marriage. Yet, one would be hard pressed to find a lawsuit pushing for gay marriage in which the NAACP is not a plaintiff.

Black support for school vouchers is stronger than white support. Almost three out of four blacks between the ages of 26 to 35 support vouchers.

Yet, the NAACP adamantly opposes vouchers and school choice. A great victory was just achieved in the state of Utah which will open the door to vouchers. NAACP opposition to Utah's new law is posted prominently on the homepage of its website.

Similarly with personal Social Security accounts. Young blacks poll strongly in favor. The NAACP opposes.

Even moderate black journalists now recognize and write that the challenge in black America today is social. Aids, abortion, family breakdown, crime, poor education. These are problems of values and lifestyle, not politics.

Yet, like the old saw that to a man with hammer everything looks like a nail, NAACP leaders interpret the clear moral and social crisis in our inner cities as a political problem in need of government solutions. Ironically, and tragically, it was the invasion of government into family life, through the welfare state, that precipitated black family breakdown to begin with.

To Bruce Gordon's credit, he wanted to transform the NAACP into an organization in which blacks take responsibility for identifying and trying to solve the problems in their own community.

This was obviously too much for an organization that wants to pursue "social justice" in a world in which most black babies are born with no father at home.

The NAACP has become a symptom of the problems in black America rather than a source for solutions. Perhaps this latest crisis will provoke some badly needed soul searching and change.