AND AFTER BARRY? PLAYING ON BLACK PEOPLE'S FEARS.

The teacher of the D.C. high school class at which I was a silent visitor turned the discussion to the subject of Mayor Marion Barry. At the time, Mitch Snyder was weighing the option of a recall election against the mayor. "Think of everything that Barry has done for us over the years," the teacher said. The reaction of the students was one of sudden and earnest concern. Several said they had gotten summer jobs through the mayor's youth employment program. Their mothers paid the bills through jobs with the D.C. government. Others had gotten into training programs. "If we lose Mayor Barry," the teacher said, "we lose all of that." The students, struck by the gravity of the situation, murmured in assent.

Whenever there is a threat to the political longevity of our mayor, such reactions are common. Many black people in this city believe that all of our political fortunes, our limited self-rule, our jobs and our neighborhoods, are tied to the survival of Mr. Barry. If he goes down, we all go down with him. Any effort to unseat him is the work of racists who want to return Washington to the status of a federally controlled city -- a city controlled by whites.

The mayor, and others, are acutely skilled at playing on such fears. In fact, those fears can't be ignored. One doesn't need to dig too deeply to find the thinly veiled current of racism that is at the heart of some efforts to destroy home rule.

But the mayor is not Moses and we are not slaves who need to be led to a promised land. If we think that we can't survive without Marion Barry as mayor, then we clearly think too little of ourselves.

It's time for the mayor, and for us, to consider something more important than his political incumbency. For the past two years, this city has suffered under an ever more violent drug war. Tenants in some public housing complexes here are literally living under an occupation force of drug dealers. Their insidious lure continues to trap more and more young children -- as recruits for the drug war who serve as everything from lookouts to small-time couriers.

At this time of crisis, the mayor is caught in a trap of his own making. Barry's past relationships with convicted cocaine dealers Karen Johnson and Charles Lewis have dramatically impaired his ability to serve as the kind of moral leader we so desperately need now. On Capitol Hill, the mayor's popularity, influence and effectiveness are at an all-time low. Even the city's best friends in Congress have been severely critical of his leadership.

Examples of the resulting vacuum are many and varied. There is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would federalize the District's police force and corrections system. That would take one of the most visible and direct home rule powers out of the hands of the District government. Other members of Congress are openly debating policy measures that should rightly be in the hands of the mayor. Our mayor and this city's crime problem have become the subject of national attention. I have received telephone calls from journalists in Arizona, San Jose and Cleveland -- all wanting information for a piece they are writing or a program they're doing on our problems here.

The D.C. Council seems to be similarly afflicted. As a vitally important legislative body, it spends too much time on such things as ill-conceived curfew laws that can't stand up in court. The council's time should be devoted to more pressing concerns -- prison space and drug treatment facilities, to name two -- but it has continually failed to summon up the nerve and the effective leadership necessary to find sites and get the construction under way.

Despite the overwhelming impression of poor managerial ability in the District government, there are many able and dedicated administrators. Some are constantly spending their public time defending the mayor's bad judgment, while others are not getting the support and the free rein they need to be most effective. Perhaps the best example of the latter is Police Chief Maurice T. Turner Jr. Even those federal officials who have been most critical of the mayor have been vocal in expressing their confidence in Turner's abilities. Now, at a time when the police department desperately needs strong leadership and continuity, the chief has decided to retire.

All Washingtonians need to realize that losing our home rule powers (limited as they may be) is what's at stake here. We need strong leadership, good judgment and unquestioned integrity from the office of the mayor. There are many black leaders with the credentials to fill that high office. They must come forth now so that we can demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, that we, too, are distressed and dissatisfied. This city needs a new leader whom we all can rally around. Marion Barry's opportunities have come and gone. I have supported him in the past. I will not do so again. The writer is a member of the editorial page staff.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.