The notice from Otay Water District caught me off guard.
An email informed me the governing board had scheduled a special meeting for today, Friday Aug. 21. The sole purpose of the meeting: to censure Otay Water District board member Hector Gastelum. Again.
Wait? What?
Wasn’t he just censured last month for posting a racist remark on social media? (He was.) Didn’t he reportedly apologize for writing : “Thank GOD America was Founded by White Christian Men! By contrast, look at how things turned out in Africa, how many of you want to relocate? So STFU & get a Job! Because we need all Americans to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #MAGA #KAG #HappyIndependenceDay”” ? He did.
Surely the meeting notice was a mistake, an erroneous resending of a previous special meeting to censure Gastelum again.
It wasn’t.
Stupid is as stupid does.
This time Gastelum took to social media on Aug. 11 to rant about Kamala Harris, the country’s first vice presidential nominee of black/Indian heritage. The California senator is a woman.
“Nothing is more damaging to #EqualityForWomen movement than a whore like @KamalaHarris who F’s the boss for career advancement.”
In light of Gastelum’s recent drivel, the board once again will vote to reprimand him.
Gastelum and his defenders will cry foul, argue that he has a right to say what he wants. Within limits of the constitution, he does.
If he wants to claim and shout the same beliefs as those of racists, bigots, homophobes, Islamaphobes (he was censured for remarks about Muslims in 2017), and misogynistic slow-wits, then godspeed. It is his right. As it is the right of an elected body to declare what sort of values reflect their constituents.
In July when he apologized for his behavior he said, in part: “I will make it my life’s mission to be judged by my actions as opposed to a post that I was embarrassed by…”
When slugs slide out from under the muck, when cockroaches gather in cesspools and when the ugly and reprehensible go on social media and reveal who they are, believe them.
