Drew Hastings is the mayor of Hillsboro, Ohio, and a former stand-up comedian. But what he recently posted on his Facebook page is no joke.
Hastings wrote and later deleted this bit of angry ignorance:
“Blacks have all but formally declared war on whites, ideological types are fighting with Planned Parenthood, there’s violence over immigration, Muslim extremism and our own government is at war with its citizens.”
Head for the hills! The world is coming apart at the seams!
And Hastings was far from finished, also posting:
“This isn’t ‘lone wolf’ stuff. It isn’t a crazy with a gun. It isn’t ‘domestic terrorism.’ These are all skirmishes in a revolution that’s here.”
Then perhaps Hastings should find a nice cave and hide there until things settle down. I kinda doubt that anyone would miss him or his rantings.
After realizing just how inappropriate his comments had been, Hastings told a local newspaper he posted them as a “kneejerk reaction” to the shootings in Colorado at a Planned Parenthood clinic which left three dead. It should be noted that the man charged with that crime is white. Hastings commented:
“A lot of online opinions and venting were going on during this Planned Parenthood shooting on Friday, which spun off into all the other ills of this country. Having too much time on my hands that day, I joined in on the venting. As most of that stuff goes, it ends up getting ratcheted up and I said something to the effect that this country’s heading toward or is in some kind of revolution.”
Hastings added that he deleted his posting after hearing from black friends and other members of the community:
“I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought, I’m the mayor of Hillsboro and frankly I represent everybody, and it would really bother me if I felt I embarrassed a citizen who felt, ‘I’m embarrassed to be represented by somebody who said that,’ or if I offended somebody, because God knows I don’t have those feelings about our community at all. I wasn’t thinking about our town and our citizens at the time. Do I think we have big problems in this country and frustrations in this country? Of course I do. Could I have been more sensitive in how I put them out? Much more so, which is why I deleted it.”
And Hastings also used the patented “I have lots of black friends” defense:
“I have a good relationship in this city with our black community, and I regret them feeling included in some broad, over-the-top statement I made. I apologize to them.”
