'Illegal Poem'
The top emergency official in Arkansas resigned yesterday for sending his 66 employees an e-mail poem making fun of immigrants and welfare recipients, the Associated Press reports.
Gov. Mike Huckabee's office said that it accepted W.R. "Bud" Harper's apology and resignation.
"The forwarded e-mail was neither humorous nor acceptable," Mr. Huckabee said.
"In spite of all best intentions and dedication, we sometimes make mistakes," Mr. Harper, 72, said in a letter announcing his resignation as director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. "Some of these mistakes are so simple that it seems unreal that they can carry us into a situation I must now address."
Mr. Harper said earlier that he received the verse, titled "Illegal Poem," from someone else and sent it along because he found it humorous.
Among the poem's lines: "Welfare checks, they make you wealthy, Medicaid, it keeps you healthy." Another line accuses immigrants of bilking the system: "By and by, I got plenty of money, Thanks to you American dummy."
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