Someone apparently needs to explain to our city officials that City Hall isn't a junior high.
It seems a couple of people in positions of power have made themselves look stupid trying to demean others.
First we have the latest report of juvenile behavior, a city lawyer who city councilwoman Martha Wong said mocked her.
It seems attorney Mike Moss was seen waving his arms and mimicking Wong in front of a group of lobbyists at City Hall earlier this month.
But Moss has a great deal to learn about immature behavior from his colleagues. Thursday, Mayor Lee Brown suspended Lenoria Walker, director of the Division of Affirmative Action and Contract Compliance, for three days without pay for making disparaging remarks about councilman Joe Roach.
Walker was speaking to the National Conference of Black Mayors in New Orleans about last year's referendum on whether to keep the city's affirmative action program.
"Councilmember (Jew Don) Boney and my office are reviewing the program to include people with disability," Walker said in her speech. "They are saying - we have a Republican councilmember saying that we should have something with people with disability. A midget. Anyway - I didn't say that."
Roach has a genetic condition known as dwarfism, and naturally said he was offended by Walker's remark, which she later said was not malicious.
In fact, Walker said she didn't know "midget" was a derogatory term. Brown backed her up, saying that he found no malice in her statement.
What kind of a farce is this? It's obvious from listening to the recording of Walker's speech that she intended her comments to be malicious.
Roach and Wong are among officials who have spoken in favor of firing Walker, and she should be fired.
No affirmative action program can be successful with a narrow-minded director - which is precisely what Walker has shown herself to be.
Her comments, plus Moss' childish behavior, have led Wong to suspect that some people in City Hall feel free to act as they please because Houston now has an African-American mayor.
Even though we hate to suspect that is true, it does seem Walker would have been reprimanded more severely if she were not African-American.
Whatever the case, one thing is clear: such juvenile behavior should not be tolerated from anyone. And we hope city officials will be intelligent and professional enough to keep their derogatory comments to themselves in the future.
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