I doubt the gentle punishment handed out to Milt Champion, of Maine’s Gambling Control Unit, is going to change his thinking about women, people of color and white supremacists (“Maine sports betting official received 1-week suspension for offensive tweets,” July 8). The punishment is so light as to almost tacitly approve his hateful words.

Only after his tweets were discovered did Mr. Champion make a half-hearted apology, calling his words “a mistake” and “errors in judgment.” Referring to women as “bitches” is neither of these. Nor is his racist allusion to Black protesters; and if what amounts to praise for white supremacists, America’s modern-day counterparts of Nazi thugs, is a mistake, it is a deadly serious one.

Perhaps the in-person training Mr. Champion is required to undergo will convince him that language has consequences, and that his gives comfort and support to those who hate, and incites violence against women and people of color. If Mr. Champion refuses to acknowledge the full weight of his words, I do not see how he can continue to serve as a representative of the state.

LeRoy Mottla
Peaks Island

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