Restaurant Staff Act Like Adolescents—Grow Up!

Remember Trump’s first term as President when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was shunned and kicked out of a Virginia restaurant in 2018? Her response, no surprise, was a classy act:

‘Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left,’ Sanders posted on Twitter Saturday. ‘Her actions say far more about her than about me,’ Sanders said. ‘I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.’

The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, commented with a pathetic response:

Wilkinson told the Post that she asked Sanders to leave at the request of her staff. ‘I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation,’ Wilkinson recalled to The Post of her confrontation with Sanders. ‘I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’’

So who was actually in charge in her restaurant? And since when is an owner subject to the whims of her employees? It’s worth noting that not too much later on, the restaurant closed down.

Good riddance.

Other people affiliated with Trump in his first term were also hassled and rejected in restaurants, including Department of Homeland Secretary Kristjan Nielsen, and Senator Ted Cruz and his wife.

Recently I celebrated some potential growth in the attitudes of the Left . A part-time restaurant server, Suzannah Van Rooy, decided that she was justified in rejecting customers with whom she had political differences. Fortunately, her employer, Beuchert’s Saloon in DC, disagreed with her decision:

‘Not only do Ms. Van Rooy’s comments clearly violate our zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, but her decision to sign into our social media accounts in the middle of the night to post her own rhetoric in wildly offensive responses to comments is a further breach of conduct and protocol. She has no authority to speak on our behalf, and her comments do not reflect the positions of over twenty other people who make up our staff,’ the Friday statement read. ‘For these reasons as well as the sheer dismay and disgust we feel at her unforgivable behavior, Ms. Van Rooy has been dismissed immediately. Our staff and families (many of whom are personally offended by Ms. Van Rooy’s comments about them) are still reeling from what Ms. Van Rooy said and did, and we as a restaurant are simply horrified to be associated with base prejudice.’

I wonder how Miss Van Rooy felt as she was accused of prejudice and discrimination. Isn’t that what Republicans are accused of doing?

But my joy at hearing about this pushback was brief, overcome by the idiocy of owners of a new politically themed bar in D.C. The published statement they made and the apologies of the owners were inane. Instead of taking this opportunity to promote political maturity and thoughtfulness, they caved in. I’d like to dissect it for you (with my remarks in italics):

A newly opened politics-themed bar in Washington, D.C., was forced to remove a GOP political symbol from its building after facing community backlash. What do they mean, forced to remove? Who owns their bar anyway? The bar, called ‘Political Pattie's,’ reportedly angered some locals by featuring a GOP elephant, along with a Democratic donkey, as part of its logo painted on the front of the building. Locals attacked the bar on social media, saying a business with the GOP symbol wouldn't be welcome in an area surrounded by gay bars, according to the Washington. Well, that attack by the locals certainly was powerful. Just before its grand opening on Tuesday, ‘Political Pattie's’ removed both party symbols, saying they realized the ‘red elephant"’ symbol ‘was hurtful to the community.’ The whole community? Seriously? ‘Soon after our logo was painted on our building’s facade, we realized that the representation of the red elephant was hurtful to the community,’ owners Andrew Benbow and Sydney Bradford wrote in a statement posted on social media. ‘And out of respect, we decided to change the logo, removing both the donkey and the elephant.’

This response by the owners is so pathetic and disgusting—almost as disgusting as the server at Beuchert’s Saloon. The owners had an excellent opportunity to take the high road, to encourage people to frequent their bar as a place where people could come together, have meaningful conversations and lessen the political polarization.

But they took the sycophantic route. How sad.

I guess it’s going to be a while before we see more bridges than barriers.