Letters to the Editor: Why I am telling my neighbors that Kevin de León must resign
The mayor of Austin’s biggest city should resign because he’s a racist and a bully? How dare he?
If you read the comments, you’ll find a lot of people arguing that this is a racist remark. Well, I’m no racist, and I’m not a bully. They’re the same thing in different cases. What Kevin de León should do is resign because he’s a bully and a racist.
In his statement on Wednesday, de León wrote, “A person’s political opinions should not determine whether they can be safe in their own city.”
“A person’s political opinions should not determine whether they can be safe in their own city,” is true, but does not change the fact that a mayor is responsible for making the decision about whether that person can be safe in their own city.
De León had no right to make a statement like that because he, himself, has not been safe in his own city.
He made a statement on Wednesday that he did not believe in the city’s policies for immigrant families. When his statements were investigated by the civil rights office, an employee told me that de León’s statement was not just racist, but bigoted.
In response to my inquiry about the statement being racist, he said, “I’m proud of the fact that my staff took it upon themselves to ask for the investigation. They did the right thing by making the facts known, and that’s what good government is all about, is transparency.”
That is not what good government is all about. Transparency is not a virtue. We expect transparency in government, but we want it in the city hall, not in the mayor’s office.
Good government is about accountability, and de León has failed on that score. He’s not held accountable.
We are being told that his comments were the worst thing that happened in Austin this week. I’m a regular reader of the City Pulse, so I know what a great reporter Stephanie Hernandez is. This is not the first time she has pointed out de León’s racist comments. I believe she has a story about them. I just don’