Mayor Kirk?s remarks came after Mr. Kamb, well known for his criticism of aspects of Dallas politics, spoke in opposition to replacing the Labor Day holiday with a holiday honoring Hispanic civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.
Mr. Kamb, clad in a costume as George Washington, said:
Labor Day should encompass all Americans. I don?t care what color your skin is. If you contribute to this Country, you can be brown, you can be black, you can be white, you can be fat, you can be skinny, you can be bald, you can have glasses--I really don?t care.
But Labor Day has been a day that we acknowledge people from all walks of life who contribute to this Country. And now to devalue all of those unless they have brown skin, is separatism.
You pass it, you legislate separatism, divisiveness which is something I expect from you, Steve Salazar, and others on this council.
I expect it from Maxine Thornton-Reese who wants people to vote for people who look like her. This is the council that the City has to understand exists here.
John Loza is quoted in the paper as saying, ?it?s about time we recognized people based on the color of their skin.?
Well you know what, John? We don?t hire people based on the color of their skin.
But yet we?re going to honor people based on the color of their skin. That?s baloney. [Mayor tries to interrupt] So the next step will be to stand up against this day-to-remove-Labor-Day and call it Cesar Chavez Day. That?s a disgrace and this is not over yet.
After making his remarks, Mr. Kamb was escorted from the Council Chamber and ejected from City Hall.
Mayor Kirk responded:
Now Mr. Kamb made a conscious decision to come down here and not to make any meaningful contribution to the state but he came with the express purpose of being thrown out.
Tom Kamb wanted to direct us individually, now I want to direct him.
Tom Kamb is a coward and he is a hate-monger. He is a racist. He should not be on the radio.
He extortized [exercised] his constitutional right to use his few minutes to come and make a fool of himself. He did very well. But you know what--you?ve got rights too.
And if you don?t pick up the phone and call the management of his radio statement [station], and ask why they put this racist, bigoted hate-monger on the radio and let him spew the vindictive that he does [on a] daily basis, then we may as well not pass this holiday and honor Cesar Chavez.
And we may as well not invoke the name of Martin Luther King if we aren?t going to back up our passion with some action.
The radio is full of enough people who seek to divide us--who try to appeal to our basis of instincts. But you have a way that you cannot only vote at the ballot box, but you vote with your dollars. And you vote every time you turn on that radio.
And if you listen to that trash, shame on you. And when you leave here, I?m glad you?re here, but I want you to call whatever--I don?t even want to say the station, ?cause I don?t want to give ?em more stuff.
But you find out where that bigoted little hatemonger and radio jerk works and you pick up the phone and you call his station and say ?we?ve had enough.? OK?
You don?t have to applaud. You didn?t clap for anybody else. You didn?t boo him. Don?t applaud me. I want you to pick up the phone and I want you to call this radio station.
And Tom Kamb, if you?re half the man you think you are, then next time come back here and sit and listen to me.
This is not the only incident where Mayor Kirk has resorted to name-calling. In April, he referred to Internet website activists as ?terrorists,? after labeling certain websites as ?insidious.?
Other gafs include telling a passerby to ?go to hell? during a television interview.
One caller to Mr. Kamb?s Thursday show, an attorney, questioned whether Mayor Kirk had crossed the line from ?official duty? to libel.
According to other afternoon Kamb talk show callers, Mayor Kirk?s office was not taking comments on the issue, but was recording phone calls.
Dallas.Org attempted to get a comment from the Mayor but calls were not returned.