No Redskins in Hawaii?
The Honolulu City Council unanimously advanced a Monday urging radio host Rush Limbaugh to apologize for mimicking Chinese President Hu Jintao with a nonsensical imitation of the Chinese language.
But the measure moved forward after heated discussion between council members during Monday afternoon’s Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee meeting, with City Council member Tom Berg calling the resolution an “attack on a conservative radio talk-show host.”
“A radio personality who is in the entertainment business (is) not an elected official,” Berg said. “What’s the ramification of using this offensive language?”
Berg said he believed Limbaugh’s remarks were offensive, but that it wasn’t the City Council’s place to respond to them unless the Council was prepared to condemn a laundry list of offenses.
“Then we should be protesting the Pro Bowl if anyone (playing in it) is a member of the Washington Redskins,” Berg said. “Anybody from the Washington Redskins, you can’t play in our stadium. That’s the same playing field.”
Berg said he wanted to follow the U.S. Secretary of State’s lead in determining whether Limbaugh’s remarks were damaging to foreign relations, explaining that he didn’t want to “usurp the jurisdiction of the State Department.”
“Some people seem to think that Council members only seem to have jurisdiction over what we refer to as the nuts and bolts of government,” responded City Council Chair Nestor Garcia. “It is part of our duty that we attend to such matters. However, it is also incumbent upon those of us who are considered leaders in our community to take up issues that are maybe not within our jurisdiction … if only because we are going to be held to a high standard.”
City Council members Stanley Chang and Romy Cachola, who introduced the resolution, also spoke in support of its passage.
Ultimately, Berg said he’d trade his plan to vote against the resolution for unity with the City Council.
“I was going to vote no,” Berg said. “But I believe it is of necessity to be in unison and of one voice. I will put aside my differences… We’re all in this together and we all do bleed the same color.”
