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AN INCIDENT OF WHICH YOU SHOULD BE AWARE |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 14 May 2010 |
Mr. Kevin W. Toomy
President and Chief Operating Officer
Ruth's Chris Steak House
Ruth's Hospitality Group, Inc.
400 International Parkway, #325
Heathrow, FL 32746-5500
Re: An incident of which you should be aware.
Dear Mr. Toomy,
As you are reading this, so are tens of thousands of people
on the Internet.
This past Monday evening, May 10th, with my wife
at a dinner business meeting I decided to treat myself to a steak at Ruth's
Chris - which I consider the best steak in America
this side of Peter Luger's in Brooklyn.
I arrived at the Ruth's Chris in Tyson's Corner, Virginia
(8521 Leesburg Pike), a little after nine.
My server was a very nice and competent lady named Shannon. As it was late, the place was fairly
empty: two fellows in a booth across from
me, a quartet at a table to my left, another group to my right, and a third
group that I could hear but not see.
Shannon took my order and soon
afterwards, both the group on my right and left departed. Only the group that I couldn't see (plus the
two fellows in the booth) were left and now that the other folks had gone, I
noticed how loud they were. Really
loud. As I listened, the language they
were speaking was unmistakable. It was
Arabic.
They got so loud that I asked Shannon
if the manager could please ask these people to not talk quite so loud. I made my request as politely as I
could. The loudness continued
unabated. Finally I made my request of Shannon
a second time, and she informed me that the two fellows in the booth had now
made the same request, so she would have the manager talk to the group again.
The loudness continued and in fact increased. I was served my steak by another server, a
man whom I asked what was going on. He
said the people had had several bottles of wine and the manager could not get
them to be quiet. I said, "But they are
Moslems and shouldn't be drinking."
He frowned. "No they
are not Moslem. I am Moslem so I
know. They are Jews."
Startled, I replied, "I have traveled through most every
country in the Arab world, and know the difference between Arabic and
Hebrew. Those people are speaking
Arabic." He shrugged and left.
I attempted to enjoy my steak, but the people got even
louder. Finally, I stood up and walked
over to where I could see them. There
was an older man, a man I'd guess in his 30s, a woman about his age, and a
young boy of around 10. From about 12 feet away, I said to them, "Excuse
me - could you please not talk so loud?"
Instantly, the man in his 30s looked at me and started
shouting - and I mean shouting -
"F**k you! F**k you!" I was not prepared for this, so in reaction I
responded, "Be quiet!" He stood up and
yelled - and I mean yelled - "You are a racist!
A f**king racist!"
This elicited a big smile from me. "No sale," I said. "Calling Americans racists doesn't work
anymore."
So he took to yelling, "We are rich! We will sue you and put you in jail!" He got out his blackberry to take my
picture. To block his picture, I put my
hand in front of my face and gave him the one finger salute. Telling him to be quiet once more, I returned
to my table.
A minute later, he walked around to stand in front of my
table to yell obscenities at me some more.
I stood up to face him and asked where he was from. "Iraq,"
was his reply.
I blinked and knew I had to control myself. It was either
that or put him in the hospital.
It took every picogram of willpower I possessed to refrain
from saying, "Over four thousand American
soldiers died to liberate your country, enable you to become wealthy and come
to my country, the country that brought freedom to yours, so you could behave
this way?" - and then beat the living hell out of him.
Not that I really cared about not hurting him. It was that I pictured the police and massive
ensuing hassle and decided this drunken Arab wasn't worth it.
So I told him that Mohammed in the Koran ordered Moslems not
to drink, and he was a good example of why Mohammed said that. Then I ordered him to go back to his table,
sit down, shut up, and sober up.
He backed away, and as he went back to his table he yelled a
string of obscenities so disgustingly foul that I cannot repeat them even with
asterisks. I could not believe my
ears. I have been to almost every
country on the planet. I am 66 years
old. And I have never ever experienced
or witnessed behavior in a public restaurant as vulgar and vile as this man's.
All I did was give him a smirk and waved him away with the
back of my hand.
I resumed my attempt to enjoy my steak and glass of
wine. The Iraqis were talking loudly
again, but in English to someone whom I presumed was the manager. "We are millionaires!" I heard the woman
say. "We can buy this restaurant right
now with cash!" The man proclaimed he
had spent "two thousand dollars" on the dinner and wine and would now refuse to
pay. Etc., etc. I tuned them out.
I had not finished when the manager came to see me. He identified himself as such but did not
give his name. He said, "I must ask you
to leave because you have insulted our guests."
I looked at him in total incredulity. "I
insulted them??" I responded quietly.
I did not raise my voice. "You heard
what they said to me. You saw their
behavior. And you are asking me to leave? Are you out of your mind? Look me in the eye. Are you
out of your mind? I have a junkyard
dog lawyer who will tear you apart. So I
suggest you leave me alone."
He walked away and I never saw him again. I finished my meal, exchanged a few
pleasantries with Shannon who was so nice, and so apologetic to me for what had
happened that she made an "executive decision" to waive my bill, and left.
I am writing to you to inform you of this incident because
of the complete incompetence of your manager on duty at the time, who did
nothing to prevent it, and then had the outrageous temerity to blame it on me.
That Arab nouveau-riche trash come to the country that
liberated theirs at so much priceless cost in our soldiers' lives and be
allowed to engage in the most repulsive obscenity-laden behavior in one of your
restaurants I would think infuriate you.
And I would think that you would ensure that a manager who
defends that behavior never will work for your company ever again. Oh, yes -- and that should apply to the anti-Semitic server who claimed his drunken fellow Moslems were Jews.
Sincerely,
Jack Wheeler
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