Legislator apologizes for sharing denigrating e-mail

[The Straight Story]

Legislator apologizes for sharing denigrating e-mail
By Jim Hughes
Denver Post Staff Writer


Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland

A Loveland Republican took to the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives on Friday to apologize for having forwarded an e-mail about black victims of Hurricane Katrina that he now understands was "offensive," "inappropriate" and "degrading."

Rep. Jim Welker said he sent the e-mail - subject: "Moral poverty costs blacks in New Orleans" - without looking at it closely enough. Having read it again after people complained, he realized he never should have forwarded it, he said.

The e-mail contained an essay by a conservative black minister, the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, who wrote: "It was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out" during Katrina's aftermath.

"If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, you'll probably wait for the government to save you," he wrote. Peterson also wrote that most blacks in New Orleans "were too
lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3590975

[notadmblnd]

1. Why isn't there some organization that takes these ignorant

SOB's and make them walk a mile in others shoes? I think it would be great if this man was put in a situation that many of these people are in (take their cars and money from them) and let the welfare system pamper them for a while.

It would be a great reality show. I'd tune in every week.

[petronius]

2. That's such a bogus explanation

Who forwards an e-mail that they haven't looked at closely? People pass things on that they agree with and think others will appreciate, not random messages that they've barely skimmed. This guy got excitedat how well that e-mail expressed his true feelings, and he forgot that he's only supposed to say what he really thinks when he's out back of the barn with the other racists...

[Anita Garcia]

6. And he's an elected official

It's not like this is the first time that an elected official forwarded an offensive email and got tagged. He's not very bright is he?

[Inland]

3. Why didn't they show some initiative and build a personal levee

around their yard? I remember when I was a kid, my dad put us to work building a levee AND a reservoir AND a system of tunnels in case we had to fight a guerrilla war against invading commies, and we didn't have any shovels, either.

[notadmblnd]

5. did you walk barefoot in the snow to school and back

uphill both ways too?

sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Semi_subversive]

4. He's only apologizing because he got caught!