Facebook apology just as disappointing as blackface

Someone from Mike Ertel’s past exposed a part of his character and it cost him a role of a lifetime acting as Florida’s Secretary of State — and possibly his political trajectory.

Ertel did an honorable job as Seminole County’s Supervisor of Elections and won the respect of many residents who live there.

But his recent Facebook apology was beneath the quality of character he projected outside of his 2005 Halloween escapade.

The highlights of his 177-word post were as follows: ■ He’s a better man ■ Someone wanted revenge ■ He’s looking forward to the next adventure and will overcome “the odds.” The odds? Huh... Or do you mean your choices? It sounds like Ertel has a hell of a background story and put together an impressive resume.

But right now, as someone who sits in the offended camp, I care more about the condition of his heart than his status.

A good apology should offer sincere remorse, take responsibility for one’s actions, offer amends and a promise to never repeat said act or behavior again.

Ertel’s public apology failed. Instead, we got the story about a triumphant man being taken down by a petty person from his past. And by the way, whoever this person is from his past is a petty Betty who is 14 years too late for this nonsense.

How do we know Ertel is a better man just because of his public acts of service? History is full of good men in good jobs doing bad things privately.

I’m not suggesting anyone is perfect or doesn’t have his or her own demons. Everybody is fighting something.

But racism is a demon I don’t want sitting in any public office, in any school, in any church, in any place of work or anywhere anytime.

Ertel doesn’t have a public trail of evidence to suggest he is a racist. But his one photo from 2005 where a newly appointed supervisor of elections intentionally mocked a black female victim of one of the most devastating hurricanes on record just weeks after it wiped out homes, communities and human lives certainly suggests something significant about this man’s character.

I don’t know how the same person who claims to have overcome homelessness

would ascend to power only to demean someone else victimized into the same circumstances.

Ertel needs to fully own this before moving on with a “my bad” Facebook post and some private conversations.

I don’t write this from a place of malice, but from a position of hope.

Ertel isn’t the first and sadly won’t be the last person to display such callousness. I hope he completed some heart work over the past 14 years that led him to personal evolution. Because if this is true, no transformation happens without a process — and one we all need to witness.