Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 4-8-22

Editorial
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Feature
New Council Member Chosen To Complete Term
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Tuesday, members of the Tampa City Council selected a member of the community to complete the term of John Dingfelder. Dingfelder resig- ned from his post last week after a complaint was filed against him. He was accused of using his personal telephone to conduct City business.
A total of 23 members of the community submitted applica- tions to finish Dingfelder’s term. City Council members allowed each applicant two mi- nutes to speak and then voted.
Ms. Amanda Lynn Hur- tak was chosen as the replace- ment member of the board. Ms. Hurtak is a Tampa native and said, “Service on City Council is the logical next step to continue
MS. LYNN HURTAK (Photo by Tonya Lewis)
my efforts toward making our city the thriving and inclusive community I believe it can be.”
She is a technical editor and consultant who has served in va- rious capacities of City of Tampa government. She served on the Variance Review Board, as well as the Tampa Charter Review Commission. She's a member of the ACLU and is the current vice
president of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Associa- tion.
She attended her first mee- ting on Thursday.
Other contenders for the po- sition were: Dr. Sonja Patric Brookins, Connie Burton, James Chittenden, Dr. Ca- rolyn Hepburn-Collins, Thomas W. Connelly, Ro- bert L. "Pete" Edwards, Ron Fair, Thomas Feaster, Me- redith A. Freeman, and Con- nie Elizabeth Gage.
Other applicants were: Na- tasha L. Goodley, D. C. Gou- toufas, Allison A. Hewitt, Parker Alexander Homans, Julie Jenkins, Kella McCas- kill, Patrick Murphy, Tho- mas Scott, Tamara Shamburger, Vibha She- vade, A. Kendall Trosky, and Carroll “Carrie” West.
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Boundaries For Comedians?
he tiff between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the
Oscar ceremony raises the question of boundaries between comedians and their audiences. Indeed, Rock’s mockery of Jada Pinkett’s baldness caused Will Smith to lose control and hit Rock, behavior that clearly made a case for anger management training.
In contrast, Rock’s use of Jada’s appearance to make fun of her was also a case for establishing boundaries for comedians and members of their audiences. We also question whether comedians should mock members of their audience. We cannot have it both ways.
Remember, Donald Trump was vilified for mocking a Fox News host (Megan Kelly) and a disabled news re- porter (Serge Kovleski) in 2016. Trump’s excuse was, “I didn’t know,” as was the same excuse given by Rock. Not knowing is not an excuse to embarrass, harass, or mock someone.
On one hand we warn or protect our children against bullying yet condone an adult bullying another adult as fun. So, does Trump get punished and Chris Rock get a pass? We have known about American schizophrenia for centuries. At some point, we have to decide what is acceptable and what is off limits.
Jada Pinkett deserves an apology from Chris Rock for making fun of her bald head because of a condition called Alopecia. Her condition was widely televised in 2018. We doubt that Rock was scraping the bottom of his joke barrel to embarrass a “sister” in a room full of women with long tresses. He couldn’t be suffering from a joke drought, do you think?
We suggest comedians not make fun of people in their audiences, especially if the audience paid money to hear the jokes. We know there are thousands of our readers that suffer disabilities, including Alopecia. If someone would ask them if they would like to be the subject of a comedy joke, we doubt they would agree to do so.
Therefore, if a comedian cannot perform a comedy act without embarrassing audience members, their sense of humor needs to be expanded or they need to consider changing professions.
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