On Friday, Maine Governor Paul LePage received criticism for his decision not to attend the state NAACP's annual King Day celebrations. After a reporter questioned his decision, LePage reportedly answered, "Tell them to kiss my butt." Over the weekend, his comment raised heavy criticism from state and national leaders of the NAACP. The group's national president claimed that LePage's comments "inflame racial tension."
Afterwards, the governor changed his holiday plans and attended the Monday breakfast honoring Dr Martin Luther King. His appearance at Monday's breakfast drew mixed reactions. Some, like Rep. Effie McClain, were convinced of his sincerity and urged others to move on from his previous comments. Others, however, remained bitter and insisted that his urgent change of plans resulted from purely political motives.
Personally, I think LePage did attend the event because of political reasons but I don't think he should be blamed for it; he's a politician afterall. His comment was uncalled for but I think the NAACP is overreacting a little. What do you guys think of Governor LePage's appearance?
I think Governor Paul LePage's actions are simply outrageous. Why would you tell the NAACP to "...kiss my butt," when the NAACP (although I don't know possible prior context) haven't done anything to wrong him in the past. This rude comment is quite unnecessary in the sense that he could've simply said something nicer, like "I don't think I want to attend because of..." Or something along those lines. Moreover, the fact that the governor says this in response to the King Day celebrations simply shows how disrespectful and absent-minded he really is. It simply doesn't seem fair to bad-mouth Martin Luther King Jr., who devoted their life to the betterment of the American people.
Although he did end up attending, I believe it was just out of regret for his actions. As a public authority figure, he would probably lose a lot of popularity if he were to try to run for governorship again. Moreover, seeing how everyone was criticizing him, he probably realized how rash his actions were, and decided to attend to the event in the end.
Maybe the NAACP is overreacting, but it's a bit unfair to say that to a group of people who've been segregated and racially divided from the country for years in the past. If LePage either kept his mouth shut, or at least toned down his comment, he could have avoided a lot of dislike and hateful comments from other people.
LePage's comment was disrespectful, but it might be going too far to accuse him of being a racist. It does seem like he ended up attending the event only because of the bad press, but that also doesn't mean he isn't sincere about how he feels about what Martin Luther King did. If LePage made a formal apology to the NAACP before he attended the event, that might have convinced me of his sincerity.
2 comments:
I think Governor Paul LePage's actions are simply outrageous. Why would you tell the NAACP to "...kiss my butt," when the NAACP (although I don't know possible prior context) haven't done anything to wrong him in the past. This rude comment is quite unnecessary in the sense that he could've simply said something nicer, like "I don't think I want to attend because of..." Or something along those lines. Moreover, the fact that the governor says this in response to the King Day celebrations simply shows how disrespectful and absent-minded he really is. It simply doesn't seem fair to bad-mouth Martin Luther King Jr., who devoted their life to the betterment of the American people.
Although he did end up attending, I believe it was just out of regret for his actions. As a public authority figure, he would probably lose a lot of popularity if he were to try to run for governorship again. Moreover, seeing how everyone was criticizing him, he probably realized how rash his actions were, and decided to attend to the event in the end.
Maybe the NAACP is overreacting, but it's a bit unfair to say that to a group of people who've been segregated and racially divided from the country for years in the past. If LePage either kept his mouth shut, or at least toned down his comment, he could have avoided a lot of dislike and hateful comments from other people.
LePage's comment was disrespectful, but it might be going too far to accuse him of being a racist. It does seem like he ended up attending the event only because of the bad press, but that also doesn't mean he isn't sincere about how he feels about what Martin Luther King did. If LePage made a formal apology to the NAACP before he attended the event, that might have convinced me of his sincerity.
Post a Comment