Keith's comment this article -- Racial slur by Tea Party leader hits home:

SPRINGBORO — Racist comments, including a slur about Hispanics, posted on the Twitter page of the Springboro Tea Party were particularly hurtful to Alana Turner.

“Illegals everywhere today! So many spics makes me feel like a speck. Grrr. Wheres my gun!?” said the March 21 posting on the site managed by the group’s founder, Sonny Thomas.

Turner said the comments upset her because she and Thomas have a 6-year-old son who is part Hispanic.

“Basically, it’s like he’s saying he hates his son,” Turner said.

The Twitter posting triggered cancellations by several local and statewide candidates and elected officials scheduled to speak at a Springboro Tea Party rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park. However, some officials say this doesn’t tarnish the Tea Party movement as a whole.

“I don’t think it says anything about the movement per se,” state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., said on the same day Tea Party officials from around the country formed a federation to counteract perceptions that the groups are racist, unsophisticated and disorganized. Jones was the first elected official to withdraw from the event. Read on...