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Ok, this isn’t new news, it’s old news, but it’s something that’s been bothering me for a long time and I need to get it off my chest, so bear with me.

At the outset, let me just say that I’m no fan of President Trump or his administration. Nor am I a fan of White House Press Secretary Sandra Huckabee Sanders. Actually, this has less to do with her and more with how we should treat one another.

On Friday, June 22^nd, 2018, Sarah Sanders arrived at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, VA. She was the last to arrive to a table of 8 including her husband. Soon afterward, the owner, Stephanie Wilkinson arrived at the restaurant after being informed that Ms. Sanders was there. Shortly after being served, Wilkinson came over and asked to speak to Ms. Sanders outside. She is quoted as saying her establishment,

“has certain standards to uphold such as honesty, compassion, and cooperation. I’d like to ask you to leave.” To which Sanders responded, “That’s fine, I’ll go.” Sanders soon left without incident along with everyone at the table. They were not asked to pay, being told their order was, “on the house.” The owner had consulted the other staff before speaking to Ms. Sanders. “Tell me what you want me to do? I can ask her to leave.”, she said. They said, “Yes”.

The owner had her reasons. Having several LGBT workers on her staff, she sited the Press Secretary’s comments defending President Trump’s ban on transgender personnel in the military. This was also at a time when The White House was under extreme criticism both at home and abroad over its controversial policy of criminally prosecuting every undocumented immigrant crossing the Mexican border, a policy that led to over 2,300 children being separated from their families.

I personally agree with Ms. Wilkinson’s feelings on these matters. That policy was inhumane and wrong. But asking Ms. Sanders to leave for no other reason was also wrong.

The next day, Sanders spoke about the incident on twitter.

“Last night I was told to leave by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA. to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than me.” She was later accused of violating federal ethics laws over the tweet and maybe she did, but this is beside the point.

The owner later said that since Sanders was a White House official and not a normal citizen, it was somehow OK. That is irrelevant. Sanders was not there in any official capacity, she was just going to dinner with her family and friends.

At around this time, the news was ripe with stories of restaurants calling the police on black patrons just waiting or chatting. That was wrong, too. Media outlets universally condemned these acts.

Of course, there was a huge backlash after the Red Hen incident including Sander’s tweet. Many protested the restaurant as prejudiced and many others came to the owner’s defense. All of this led to the restaurant being temporarily closed.

This is in sharp contrast to a similar incident that happened a few weeks later at the beginning of July. Embattled by multiple scandals, disgraced head of the EPA Scott Pruitt was confronted by a mother as he was eating in a restaurant. The woman chastised him over his failure to uphold the values of his office and protect the environment and she urged him to resign. Pruitt didn’t respond and left without incident. He resigned not long after. Good riddance I say. This situation was different however. The woman was another patron and she was exercising her right of freedom of speech. More importantly, Pruitt wasn’t forced to leave by the establishment.

If someone is being disruptive or abusive to other patrons or staff, they should be asked to leave. However, if the owner refuses service or asks someone to leave based solely on the color of their skin, their religion, their sexual orientation, their political beliefs, or who they happen to work for, we have a word for that; it’s called discrimination.

If I was a conservative owner of a restaurant and a famous liberal politician came in and if I then asked him to leave for that reason, that would be equally wrong.

Unfortunately, it appears the courts may support business’ right to chose who and who not to serve. In the same month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker who had refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple based on his religious beliefs.

I find this trend disturbing. I believe religion and politics should be left out of business and service industries. Following this line of thinking, what’s next? Will we have liberal only and conservative only restaurants? Muslim only or Christian only stores? Gay only or straight only businesses? It feels like we’re going backwards. All should be treated and served equally.

I understand that many viewed the owner’s decision to ask Sanders to leave as a symbol of the people fighting back against a corrupt and immoral government. I agree with the sentiment. But we shouldn’t have a double standard. If we want to protect the rights of those we agree with, we must also protect the rights of those we don’t agree with.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just my Midwestern bias, I’m from Kansas. Or it might be the fact I’ve been living in Japan where politeness is so important. I just felt it was disrespectful and…well, rude.

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