Colorado City Councilwoman Sandra Tucker Resigns Over Racist Email

Colorado City Councilwoman Resigns Over Offensive Joke on Website

Here we go again.... Another public official's true colors have finally manifested themselves. This latest gaffe was made by a public official, city councilwoman Sandra Tucker of Dacono, Colorado. She has resigned from her position after Wade Carlson, mayor of the town, said that a joke she posted on a community weblog was racist. The page-long joke described the tale of a white male who has a "nightmare" in which he awakes to discover that he has "been turned" black, gay, Jewish and disabled. The joke uses terms such as "negro," "queer," "fairy" and also poked fun at orphans, Mexicans, Jews, HIV-positive patients, drug addicts and those with physical disabilities. The punch line of the joke comes when the person having the nightmare also finds out that he is a Democrat, a "fate worse" than all the rest, the posting stated.

In the e-mail she said that being a Democrat is worse than "being a black disabled one-armed drug addicted Jewish queer who has a Mexican boyfriend." Dacono Mayor Carlson said that the joke was offensive and asked Tucker to remove it from Tri-town.com, a community message board. She refused to do so, but did resign from her position in protest to the matter. She told The Denver Post that "I'm sick and tired of all of this political correctness." "I'm not going to apologize if you don't have a sense of humor." So, I guess you can draw your own conclusions, but I don't believe a politician should be spewing this racist humor and somehow believing that it will have no repercussions.

I am sure most of you have never heard about Dacono, Colorado, a town of 4,000. I am pretty sure that the town did not want to be spotlighted in this manner either. She was elected to serve a second term, but resigned because of the furor. She has said that she's not racist but understands that the posting has made it almost impossible to carry on that second term in the city council. Yes, of course she's not racist. Non-racists discuss this kind of thing every day!

While we are afforded the right to free speech under the Constitution, public officials should be diplomatic and choose their words wisely, to avoid this very thing from occurring. It is a sad commentary to know that we are still dealing with racial insensitivity on all levels and across all ethnicities in the United States today. The mayor vehemently defended his city as one that is growing, progressive and intolerant of racism. A little history, if anyone cares-Dacono was incorporated on January 23, 1908. Charles Baum named the city by choosing the first two letters from three ladies' names: Daisy, Cora and Nora to form Dacono. The town is located in southern Weld County, 20 miles north of Denver, Colorado. This area is also commonly known as the Carbon Valley or Tri-Town area.

It is a real shame that her political career had to come to an end over an e-mail, but she did it to herself. Well, some will say good riddance, while others will say that the joke was funny, but all I can say is that politicians have to be wary of the things they say. After all, President Bush is living proof that things you say or write can come back to hit you like a ton of bricks when you least expect them too. I suspect many others are guilty of the "foot in the mouth" syndrome, so this is nothing new. To that I say of Sandra Tucker, good riddance!