There is a barbecue place about 100 miles down the road that I like to visit. I convince friends to drive the old back highway route instead of the Interstate just so we can jump in the Suwanee River spring across the street then enjoy a pulled pork sandwich with slaw and a big iced tea- (mix it like you like it style.)
The place is always clean. They have hot, mild, and sweet sauce. The women who work the counter are always friendly. It's a small business in a great location. I go there because it adds texture to my life.
This place represents a unique Florida that makes us natives feel better about the whoring out of the rest of the state. I stopped there a couple of weeks ago and they were closed. I was afraid they had closed for good and I experienced a shock of heartbreak. It turns out they were on vacation or something because I passed by last week, and everything was just right. I got the ribs and ate them in the car so I could fling the bones out the window.
Part of the decor, if not the charm, are the homemade signs questioning the birthplace of Barack Obama, the qualifications of Congress, and prominent ads for concealed weapons permits. To his credit, the owner is quite politically active and believes one individual can make a difference in his government.
I happen to agree with him on that.
So. Let's re-check some facts.
Good barbecue
He owns the place
Has the right to his opinions
What I wonder is, if we were to discuss our differences of perspective. Would I lose my pulled pork sandwich? Would he lose his $8.00 and the goodwill I have brought him over the years? Who wins there? Nobody. That is double losers.
Can you guarantee that every person you rely on shares your values? Are you willing to exile yourself to a community of your peers and your peers only? Will you decline the services of a Hindu cop or a lesbian cardiologist?
In times of crisis will you only help the ones like you? Will you let Sportswoman for Palin bleed out? Will you let your neighbor's kids go hungry because of the Darwin sticker on the car?
Don't laugh. Don't say it could never happen here.
Juancho
9 comments:
Well. You're right. I know you are. I'm not as sweet as you, though. The older I get, the less I want to eat my barbecue while looking at signs questioning the birthplace of our president. That's just how it is.
This IS a free country-mostly- and I am free to find another barbecue place where I would feel more comfortable. Thankfully, barbecue is not cardiology. And of course I would not question someone's values if they needed my emergency help or if I needed theirs.
Funny, the signs at that place turned me off last time. I've had my share of bbq there, but the recent displays of internet drivel just soured the sauce.
I've since found a place just as good close to home and they treat me like family, not like a sounding board.
Help and Support are two different sandwiches; pickles come with either.
I won't decline the services of either, but if I get to choose, make the lesbian a cop and the cardiologist a Hindu.
Another excellent essay on the relationship of civility and freedom of speech.
It gives rise to several important questions that should also be addressed. Was the medium sauce mustard based or tomato? Did the hot sauce make your brow sweat or is it hot only in relation to its sister sauces?
I have met very few bbq sauces that I did not enjoy but that mustard based sauce that Banjos used to have combined with their chopped pork, now that was truly civil. Big Red could have served that up clad only in a Sara Palin speedo with swastikas tattooed over each nipple and I would have simply said thank you sir!
OK. Now, from the other side, as a business owner or professional, would you turn away a customer or client in that Sarah Palin Speedo?
No, but I would charge them extra. Hitops is of course qoo5 correct, but I thought I would run it against typecasting and see if anyone noticed. Leave it to the attorney to catch it. Aucilla just nailed their asses hard because the hot sauce is in fact only hot by comparison and not truly hot.
Always to humor, that is what saves us.
Would I eat the bbq? Really would depend on my mood. I might even go hunt, fish and fighting with them just to see it. Those places are good to stop at, especially with the kids. It’s a wide world.
I'm a yankee even if I'm not a real yankee but a hillwoman, and a Floridian for 40+ years-- I'm on other people's turf. I figure it's best not to forget that.
And Juancho, that makes you the US version of what they called Criollos in Mexico (those born in Mexico but of Spanish blood). We foreigners need to mind our manners and just consider the wall art as "charming."
Damn, Magnum, don't hurt 'em. That was the truth right there.
I like this crowd.
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