Down in League City, Texas, which after the next hurricane will be a coastal city, the city manager, one sparkly white guy named Rich Oller, had a little slip of the tongue.

Rich Oller

He said the N word.  In a city facility.  Out loud.  And it is suspected that he was sober at the time.  Now, I know that violates no written or unwritten canon of ethics, morality, decency and intelligence in League City, but Rich Oller stepped over the line – there were people of color present.

So to keep things from getting out of hand, the League City city council goes into a back room to discuss this.   If you’ll check, the entire city council in League City is white, which might explain why the closed session was described as “long.”  The general consensus is that you probably shouldn’t say the N word out loud at work in front of African Americans while city manager.  They decided to suspend him for a week without pay.

Dennis O'Keefe

But there was one loud dissenting voice – Councilman Dennis O’Keeffe, who describes himself as, “a strong supporter of the Constitution and a National Rifle Association Life member,” which is the bellwether qualification for public office in League City.

O’Keefe was proud to tell the assembled press —

Although he voted for the suspension, Councilman Dennis OKeeffe said he disagreed with his colleagues.

“I think that language that was stated may have been a poor selection of words,” OKeeffe said.

But, OKeeffe said, he did not think it was something for which Oller should be reprimanded.

A poor selection of words.  I was wondering if Councilman OKeeffe could tell me an acceptable word for the N word.   You know, the one that imparts the mean, hateful, belittling impact of the N word.  Is there another word for that word?

But, there’s more —

“It’s an unfortunate thing that happened,” Mayor Tim Paulissen said.

Unfortunate?  No, Mr. Mayor, unfortunate is when to stump your toe or don’t win the lottery.  This falls under the category of embarrassing and disgusting.

But, the mayor did add, “city might also look into sensitivity training for employees.”

And one lone voice, Councilman Dan Becker,  suggested that “city council members also should take the training.”

Thank you, Dan Becker, for saving me the trouble of coming to League City to kick some boney white behind.