What happened recently is that a woman who was not so anonymous, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who represents the power of the American Government, decided to visit this restaurant with her entourage. According to news sources, the staff expressed consternation over her presence on account of her support for policies that they consider abhorrent. In consultation with her staff, the owner made the decision to ask Ms. Sanders to leave. She made the request one on one, and there was no charge for food already consumed. It seemed that the matter rested there.
I cannot say for certain what I would have done in similar circumstances, because I have the benefit of time, reflection, and distance. I would like to think that I would have served the customer with the added twist to notify her that proceeds from her payment for the dinner would be allocated to progressive and humanitarian causes that have suffered under the present administration. I recently read in the Boston Globe of this solution having been applied by a local eatery. But we live in a divided country, and people are apt to make decisions based upon the passion of the moment.
Withholding food and other services from a paying customer has a long and painful history in this country. One could argue that the Red Hen, realizing this, used this history, as well as present circumstances, to mete out justice in those terms. But tit for tat generally does not end well. And in this case it most certainly did not. But what followed, at least from my perspective, erases any claim whatsoever that Ms. Huckabee may have to a status of victim. She was asked to leave by the owner of the restaurant. I cannot know how justified this request really was. What followed, however, was decidedly unethical, unprofessional and inappropriate.
There are many venues for registering a complaint against a restaurant: The Better Business Bureau, A Letter to the Manager, and a one star rating review if one desires. But Ms. Huckabee did not do this. Instead, she took to twitter, and her official Washington one at that. In her tweet she cited the incident then named the restaurant and its location. In so doing she rallied her supporters in a grand overkill form of vigilante justice. The predictable happened. People who have never even set foot in The Red Hen started writing bad reviews and meting out one star ratings. Supporters, many of whom also never tasted the restaurant’s exquisite food, launched a counter attack with five star ratings. The expected happened. Our president himself, also not a patron, tweeted a bunch of fallacious remarks concerning the hygiene and paint in the restaurant. A restaurant he has no physical experience or knowledge of. I never thought I would see the day in this country when our government would attack its own private citizens and private business establishments in such a gross manner.
But what can an ordinary person do in the face of this? Tell the truth. It may impact only a few, but it is better than letting a lie stand.
The collage that illustrates this review, The Red Hen, is a reworking of a piece of Chinese folk art.
