Funniest line in an apology this week

I just ran across this incident and “apology”.

The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called “a small group of friends.” One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.

Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city. Grose said he didn’t mean to offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons.

Located in Orange County, Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile city of around 12,000 people.

OK, the man forwards a racist cartoon.  Evidently he thought it was funny if he forwarded it to “a small group of friends” (read that … “I didn’t expect my friends to freak out about this and make a big deal about it.  It’s not like I sent it around the world!”).

He claims that he didn’t mean to offend anyone (read … “that I sent this to”).

And then in the funniest line (or lie?) in an apology this week, he claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons!  If that’s true, then he has no business being a mayor, and the resignation is appropriate.  What, pray tell, would make such a cartoon funny if one was unaware of the stereotype and you were not racist?  Would the same cartoon have been passed along if instead of watermelons it had apples?  Give me a break!

Pondering Pastor