Blue Arkansas: Beebe Appoints Racist to State Commission
by July 16, 2012 5:19 pm 167 views
I rarely agree with the left-leaning blog, Blue Arkansas, on the issues, but I appreciate the willingness to call a spade a spade as they did recently with Ken Aden.
Today, Blue Arkansas criticizes Gov. Mike Beebe for appointing an individual known for sending out racist emails.
They report that Joe St. Columbia – who was reappointed to the Mississippi River Parkway Commission – has sent out several racist emails. They have copies of these emails and they are quite bad.
Blogger David McAvoy writes…
Columbia survived censure over that explosive scandal thanks to the veto of the corrupt Helena Mayor Arnell Willis. At
the time, residents of Helena asked Governor Beebe to call for Columbia’s resignation from the MRPC. Beebe ignored them. Now he’s gone and reappointed this man. For all intents and purposes, this is spitting not only in the faces of African Americans, but in the faces of anyone with a sense of decency. Governor Beebe owes everyone an explanation for this, and an apology. It is unbelievable to me that in the 21st Century I would have to write about an appointment like this, especially coming from a governor that’s supposed to be a Democrat.
But it looks like Beebe's office is sticking with his decision to re-appoint Columbia.
“There was community support for the re-appointment, including from the mayor of Helena-West Helena, so Mr. St. Columbia was re-appointed,” said governor's spokesman Matt DeCample.