Tiff over purple-haired, pierced kids takes a new twist
Thought the brouhaha between the gay and lesbian kids who got kicked out of Rep. Jane Cunningham’s office was over? Think again. The students who were “painful” for Cunningham to look at, were advocating for the gay and lesbian group PROMO, and after they were kicked out of Cunningham’s office (the reasons why are in dispute), PROMO started a campaign asking Cunningham to apologize.
Late last week an apology was issued, but not by Cunningham. Indeed, it was Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis, who apologized to the Chesterfield Republican. Mott Oxford had taken up the case of the purple-haired, pierced kids from Kansas City, and she and other Democrats in the House held a news conference urging Cunningham to allow a hearing on a new anti-bullying bill, which is what brought the students to the Capitol in the first place.
But Mott Oxford violated an unwritten rule of the House. Don’t throw another lawmaker under the bus without talking to them first. Mott Oxford issued a written apology to Cunningham for her role in the news conference:
“I owe you an apology. Today I led a press conference calling for passage of the Safe Schools bill (HB 1751) and for you to meet with students who were asked to leave your office. I asked for you to hear their experiences of being bullied at school and to attend the Inclusion Institute for Educators this summer. It should have occurred to me to come to you first and to ask you personally to take those steps. No legislator wants to feel ambushed by her colleagues or the media, and I had not thought this out properly.”
***Then she should invite the freaks in for a talk, conditional on their appropriate attire.***
First have them wash the purple carp out of their hair and allow the side of their shaved heads to grow back their hair, then ask Jane if she will hear your concerns about why oh why do we get bullied.
And remove all your eyebrow and nose piercings first, thank you very much.
The idea that your looks would disentitle you to political representation used to be much more accepted, I think. Nowadays, Rep. Cunningham comes off as an elitist, prejudiced, rude, lazy slacker. It is, after all, her job to represent the people of MO, regardless of their appearance. She gets paid to do that. It’s not like she does the job for free. If anything, her position makes her more responsible to hear the positions of people directly affected by the bills from her committee, not less. She should apologize just for insulting those 2 students.
I am astonished that anyone thinks it is ok for a state representative to throw anyone out of their office and and to make a remark about their looks or how they are dressed. What century is this? Let’s see…are the state representatives not elected to represent ALL of the people - not just the ones that look like THEY THINK they should??? or of their political persuasion or talk the same or walk the same or … etc. Those students had every right to contact Rep. Cunningham since she is the chair of a committee. It doesn’t matter which district she is. They didn’t need to be constitutents of her district to contact her. A committee chair gets contacted by MANY lobbyists who are not their constitutents - it happens every day. They don’t get thrown out of offices because of the way they look. The capitol building belong to the people - not the state representative and the constituents have a right to be here. Rep. Cunningham was totally out of line with the remark she made. She simply could have said she didn’t have time to meet with them - period. Her disregard for their feelings is judgemental and totally out of line. She should be ashamed of herself.
Astonished–you should come here more often. I am always amazed, astonished, amused, etc about some of the comments on here by some who think society should be plain vanilla and those who don’t toe the “plain vanilla” line deserve any disrespect they get.
What many of you fail to recognize is Rep. Cunningham’s importance. When seeking an to visit with royalty one must cast off their rags and crawl to the palace door and beg for a moment with someone of such stature.Who do they think they are? People need to realize she is there because she deserves it . Now pay her salary and benefits and shut up. She deserves it . And for those of you that don’t get it her salary is not payed by the people of the State only from her District.Right?
“What many of you fail to recognize is Rep. Cunningham’s importance. When seeking an to visit with royalty one must cast off their rags and crawl to the palace door and beg for a moment with someone of such stature.Who do they think they are?…Now pay her salary and benefits and shut up.”
It makes sense that a supporter of Rep. Cunningham would be an elitist snob and against citizens exercising free speech.