First, local United Way officials offended a few donors and other residents by inviting Academy Award-winning actor Susan Sarandon to serve as keynote speaker for an April fundraising event. The critics were unhappy with Sarandon's outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Then, the United Way officials offended a whole new group of donors and other residents by uninviting Sarandon. Robin Carson, chairwoman of the United Way of Tampa Bay's board of directors, said Sarandon's appearance would have been "divisive."

In the end, even many people with no opinion about Sarandon one way or the other were offended by United Way officials' panicky, indecisive actions. They were left wondering whether the local United Way operates on the basis of consistent principles, or whether it serves at the mercy of its most thin-skinned donors.

(A disclaimer: The Times was to have been a sponsor of the event featuring Sarandon, who is a sister of Times outdoors editor Terry Tomalin, and several Times executives have held leadership positions in the United Way.)

Locally and nationally, the United Way holds itself out as an inclusive umbrella of charitable organizations. It purports to represent every facet of our community: young and old, male and female, black and white, liberal and conservative. In many respects, it lives up to that image, providing a streamlined organization for donations that are the lifeblood of many worthy community charities.

Still, United Way officials on the local and national levels keep stumbling into scandals and controversies that raise questions about their competence, their inclusiveness and, in some cases, their integrity. The aborted invitation to Sarandon is a relatively minor matter. It doesn't compare to the scandal involving the former United Way national president who diverted hundreds of thousands of charitable dollars to entertain his teenage girlfriends. It doesn't even compare to the ongoing controversy over United Way's support for the Boy Scouts despite the scouts' religious restrictions. But the Sarandon spat is symptomatic of an organization that still doesn't consistently live up to its own inclusive standards.

Opinions are, by definition, divisive. And a keynote speaker without opinions is like a singer without music. An organization that claims to represent the entire community has to be prepared to hear different points of view, not just those that are palatable to major donors. Until the United Way becomes truly inclusive, it will keep creating controversies that obscure the many good works performed by the important charities it represents.

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