Driving to our new favorite Mexican restaurant Friday evening, the conversation turned to 23&Me's donation of genetic testing kits as a means of reuniting separated children and their parents. Of course, issuing matching hospital bracelets would have accomplished the same thing, but that would have implied planning and forethought as opposed to a hissy fit to placate the base.
Too brown to be in town, TBG muttered, shaking his head, scowling, squinting his eyes in that way that signals Danger, Will Robinson. The cruelty to children is driving him to distraction. He's angrier than I can remember seeing him, and I've been seeing him for a long, long time.
We try to leave politics far from the dinner table, but we couldn't contain ourselves. We were casting aspersion left and right, denying the humanity of those who were party to the awfulness.
Those children are already damaged - we kept coming back to that. No matter what we do, they are different than when they arrived. Eve Sarah Sanders wouldn't take the podium to defend it; she had Homeland Security take her place. Then she went out to dinner.
The restaurant freaked, called the owner, didn't know what to do. How could they profit from Sarah Sanders? The owner arrived, polled the staff, and the Sanders's were asked to leave.
They were polite. I wish she had made a stink about it.
Nasty is nasty, no matter if you are supporting the President or the Resistance. If you are open for business you are open for business, even if you are a couple of black guys who need to pee while waiting for a friend in Starbucks
Do unto others comes to mind, too,
But I always end up in the same place - what if she asked you to bake a cake for her wedding?
You disagree with her politics, think she is immoral, don't want her in your space. You refuse her service based on her beliefs. The Supreme Court agrees with you; you have nothing to fear.
But living in our separate silos has contributed to the sorry state of affairs in America today. We are so angry with one another that we cannot be in the same room with one another. That's no way to reach a compromise, no way to govern, no way to live.
I would rather have had the staff be salgubrious* with her, meeting her every need with a smile and good cheer When the excellent meal and fine service is rewarded with a generous tip, one of the servers could explain that they can't keep her money, but that they will be donating all of it to RAICES, where it can do the most good.
*****
*salgubrious - overly friendly, often ridiculous or feigned (newly minted by TBG in 2010)
RAICES promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families and refugees in Central and South Texas. They are putting up bail money for asylum seekers.
I agree completely with your reading of this situation. I too thought of the cake decorating analogy. The principle of doing to others as you would have them do to you comes to mind. But I understand and share the anger that children can be so carelessly treated.
ReplyDeleteAngry. Disgusted. But you go to work and do your job, which includes serving those you don’t admire. That’s what America os all about, to me, anyway.
Deletea/b
I'm past being nice. I feel giving her any leeway is condoning what they are doing. As someone on Facebook pasted last night. This isn't a left vs. right issue. This is a right vs. wrong issue. I think going high has cost us too much and they have taken advantage of it. Maybe if they stop with the fascism, I will then be nice. Otherwise, they will continue to get my scorn and disgust.
ReplyDeleteSending hugs!
Stacy xxx
Going high let’s me sleep at night. She has to look at herself in the mirror every morning...that’s nough for me!
Deletea/b
I remember signs: "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." I was a young kid but I knew who they meant. As late as 1947, the lunch counter where I worked in a Kress store could fix sandwiches to go but the brown and black people could not sit down. Then in Wichita KS a brave few sat at a drug store and it began to get better. Who thought that seventy-one years later we would discriminate against those we disagree with. I'm with you: do your job, serve people who come into your business and work for better days.
DeleteWhen it comes to Sarah Sanders, I just don't care. Do U?
ReplyDelete