A Loveland Republican took to the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives on Friday to apologize for having forwarded an e-mail about black victims of Hurricane Katrina that he now understands was “offensive,” “inappropriate” and “degrading.”
Rep. Jim Welker said he sent the e-mail – subject: “Moral poverty costs blacks in New Orleans” – without looking at it closely enough. Having read it again after people complained, he realized he never should have forwarded it, he said.
The e-mail contained an essay by a conservative black minister, the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, who wrote: “It was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out” during Katrina’s aftermath.
“If you’re black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, you’ll probably wait for the government to save you,” he wrote. Peterson also wrote that most blacks in New Orleans “were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.”
Despite being one of the quietest and most unassuming members of the House, Welker is no stranger to controversial statements.
Last year, he was attacked for asking at a news conference if gay marriage might lead to interspecies marriage. He also has been assailed for questioning the health risks of homosexuality.
Saying it was “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” Welker took to the House floor to apologize for the e-mail Friday.
“I don’t condone those comments” in Peterson’s essay, Welker told colleagues. “I offer my sincere apologies to this body and to the public (and) to the people of Loveland. I hope I become a better person for having made a big mistake.”
Welker was less contrite about the e-mail Monday, the day he sent it.
Just because he forwarded the essay in an e-mail didn’t mean he endorsed it, he said then. He would have to look at it again to “dissect” what he agreed with and disagreed with in the essay, he said.
Welker, 58, is a Christian who said he believes the Bible is meant to be read literally.
He and two other House Republicans visited Arizona to tour the Mexican border last fall, essentially launching Republicans’ push this year for state action on illegal immigration.
In an interview Friday, Welker said he thought Peterson’s essay had been about self-sufficiency and the dangers of the welfare state.
“I believe it’s a Republican principle to give people a hand up and once they get on their feet, they can make a living on their own,” he said. “People need to be on their own as much as they possibly can, without depending upon the government.”
Several House members went to the microphone Friday to condemn Welker, but they also praised him for the sincerity of his apology.
“That took a lot of courage,” said Terrance Carroll, D- Denver, who is black.
But, he went on to say, “the last thing we need to be known as is a body that condones hatred and that condones bigotry.”
Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, who also is black, reacted strongly to word of Welker’s e-mail Friday.
“Maybe he should go to Sears and see what size sheets and hoods they have,” Groff said.
But Welker’s Republican colleagues in the House said they believe him when he says he forwarded the essay without carefully reading it. None defended the e-mail.
“He was just walking along and looking at the sky and kicked over a beehive, without recognizing he had done it, simply for lack of adequate attention,” said Rep. Al White, R- Winter Park.
Republican Rep. Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud, who calls Welker a personal friend, credited him for apologizing.
“I remain convinced he has about the highest integrity of anybody around here,” Lundberg said.
Two hours before Welker sent the “blacks in New Orleans” e-mail, he sent another one, with “The Origins of Political Correctness” in the subject line.
That e-mail offered a link to an essay that describes how, “for the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic.”
Asked Friday about his speculation last year on the chances of gay marriage leading to interspecies marriage, Welker said he had been trying to make an argument about moral relativism.
“I didn’t follow up on the details, but a couple months ago, some lady married a dolphin,” he said Friday. “But I didn’t do any research on that. I heard it on the radio somewhere.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
