I noted the travails of Joe Vento, proprietor of Geno’s Steaks in Philadelphia. Mr Vento has the sign, “This is America! When ordering, speak English” on his establishment.
Naturally the Usual Suspects were all outraged; the man was discriminating against illegal immigrants. So, naturally, the city’s Commission on Human Relations had to get involved. Mr Vento had to make obeisance and declare his fealty on the Altar of Multiculturalism and swear that he hadn’t actually denied anyone service.
Jim noted Mr Vento’s 2-1 victory. And Philly’s own ALa has the story as well. She seems to know a lot more about actually ordering a cheesesteak than I do, since I think the things are vile; it might actually be less efficient to have the grease injected intravenously than to eat a cheesesteak!
But, as far as I am concerned, if Mr Vento wishes to restrict ordering to English, that ought to be his right. Why should he have to be responsible for understanding a foreign language to properly serve a customer?
That’s not how it was originally reported, Dana. Yeah, when faced with someone with a little more power over him than he had over poor, hungry Mexicans, he backed off. And the City could not get witnesses to contradict him. But his bragadocio at the Michelle Malkin link, above, says a different story. And the whole story is that he’s a coward as well as a bully.
Whatever happened to the idea of ‘private business’? Since when does anyone have to cater to the whims of anyone who walks up to the counter?
If this guy wants to limit his income only to english speaking folks, fine. It is not like he’s the only guy selling cheesesteaks in Philly anyway.
What a messed up world we live in, where if you have a business you are forced to take peoples money if it hurts your business.
NK, reading the story on the lovely Mrs Malkin’s site — and I read it in the original, in The Philadelphia nquirer when it first came out — it never states that he refused service to anyone.
You’ll note my use of the word “obeisance” to denote that he surrendered to greater power, but I don’t think it’s right: if he wishes to limit his customers to those who can order in English, I think he ought to ave that right.
We’ve disagreed on this before. I’ll shift arguments. The morality of denying food to anyone out of pure xenophobia aside, if there is one business which has the least right to claim freedom from regulation is the sale of food. It’s too precious and essential a commodity to be left to the mercies of the “free market”. Even the kind of food Mr. Vento sells.
I stopped sincerely believing in God when I saw movie reels of Jewish children starving to death on German sidewalks, some already dead with Good Germans stepping over their dead bodies, because of “Nicht Juden”. This guy Vento is the child of Italian immigrants from Mussolini’s Italy and I guess that kind of inhumanity is in his genes too. (Sorry, the moral question is what really bothers me.)
Mr Vento’s grandparents were legal immigrants, prior to 1921; their immigration predates il Duce’s rise to power.
Nor would Mr Vento declining to serve someone because he couldn’t order in English mean that such customer would starve to death; there are plenty of other fast-food joints in the neighborhood.
Serious question: let’s say that someone who really couldn’t communicate in English ordered a steak sub, no cheese, and Mr Vento and his employees simply couldn’t understand him, and gave him a cheesesteak, thinking that, as best they could understand, that was what he ordered. Said customer turns out to be severely lactose intolerant; would Mr Vento and Geno’s be liable?
No. A lactose intolerant person should know cheese when he sees it. And you are intelligent enough to already know the arguments I could make from Vento’s Italian immigrant grandparents … but I will make them anyway. He should think whether he would be here if the people selling them food were all like him.
Learning to speak English should be a duty of anyone who chooses to live here. We should not expect it of tourists or folks who come here on business but I suspect that these were not the majority of the customers of the urban eatery.
There was once a universal urge on the part of newcomers to become’American’in every way possible. While xenophibia forced some to live in ethnic enclaves, there was no effort to bring a lot of cultural baggage with them. Old-world traditions were something special, to be brought out on holidays.
Language defines our culture, a subset of Western Civilization. Some would dilute our civilzation and come up with a multicultural travesty that might appeal to some on the basis of being trendy.
Note that some nitwits in the ‘Educational Establishment’ thought well of Ebonics…….