Gov. Paul LePage’s recent racist comments are a shameful new low in a shockingly offensive and racist administration, which began with his telling the NAACP of Maine to “kiss my butt” in response to a gracious invitation to a Martin Luther King Day breakfast. A simple “No, thank you” would have sufficed.

The latest shockingly offensive comments came at the Maine Republican convention where, in addition to insulting President Obama, he made fun of the accents of hard-working immigrants and said, “the worst ones, they’re from India.”

Such remarks are profoundly ignorant and are likely to have the unfortunate effect of inciting and condoning hatred, prejudice and potentially even violence against this state’s hard-working immigrants.

As someone whose first language was not English, Gov. LePage ought to understand from personal experience the difficulties non-native speakers of English face. And as someone who is proud of the fact that he had to struggle to get ahead, he also ought to understand the obstacles faced by low-wage workers who struggle to make ends meet.

Instead, he chose to insult them by making racial remarks and ridiculing their accents in a highly public forum. Surely LePage would not have appreciated it if others made fun of his accent when he was struggling with English.

As governor, for better or worse, LePage serves as a role model and his inappropriate and ill-considered public remarks amount to hate speech. They are unbefitting the office of the governor of Maine.

Janet Lynch, Pownal