Gregory D.

Lee

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January 2, 2009

Liberals Circle the Wagons in Butterfly Town USA

The picturesque coastal town of Pacific Grove, California promotes itself as “Butterfly Town USA” because of the migration of hordes of Monarch butterflies from Canada that flock to the city every winter. The city’s beauty, coupled with its small-town atmosphere, made it a perfect choice for the shooting location of the 1989 movie, Turner and Hooch, starring Tom Hanks. 

But with the recession and falling home values, Pacific Grove is now in a financial crisis. For years it has not fully funded its public employee’s pensions, and sales tax revenues are falling faster than butterflies mate. The city council was forced to make cuts in services because residents would not vote to increase property and other taxes. Being good liberals, the city council voted to keep its library open and considered cutting police officers instead. It was forced to disband its fire department, and now contracts with bordering Monterey for its fire protection. Next time you need a cop in Pacific Grove, call a librarian.

Now, at the worst possible time for a city that relies heavily on tourism, Pacific Grove is faced with a potential public relations disaster.

An unnamed columnist in the Monterey County Herald, who goes by the pseudonym “Professor Toro,” revealed that on last Veterans Day, a soldier assigned to the nearby Defense Language Institute, fresh home from a combat tour of duty in Iraq, was confronted, along with his family, at a local “eatery” by the left-wing owner. The proprietor told the soldier, Sgt. Derek Williams, who has a short haircut and was dressed in civilian clothes, “We don’t serve your kind around here!”

What the columnist chose not to disclose was that the eatery was an ice cream shop, and that the owner also told Sgt. Williams something to the effect that he was a Bush baby killer, and his small child was a future baby killer!

Word about the incident spread faster than Monarchs can flutter their wings, and the supplier for the ice cream shop demanded the proprietor apologize. He eventually did, although reluctantly. The president of the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce, Moe Ammar, also heard about it, and told the mayor, Dan Cort.

To his credit, Mayor Cort and his wife, Beth, according to the column, “took Williams to lunch Monday and gave him a personal tour of downtown, to show him that attitude wasn't shared by other business owners, many of whom are veterans. We like our military, we depend on our military as customers," Ammar said.

You bet they do. But, when I contacted the Chamber of Commerce to ascertain the name of the eatery, the receptionist said that Mr. Ammar had requested the name not be disclosed due to potential liability issues. I told her that I lived nearby and until I found out the name of the business, I would not visit any of Pacific Grove’s restaurants for fear of unwittingly going to this eatery. I asked that Mr. Ammar return my phone call. He did not. That’s when I decided to write this column.

I located Sgt. Williams, and he told me the name of the eatery, that it was an ice cream shop and he had been called a “baby killer” by the owner. Professor Toro’s column was carefully crafted to not disclose the exact nature of the eatery, and my e-mail to the columnist asking for the business’s name was never answered.

So the liberal local press and Chamber of Commerce are circling the wagons to protect the ice cream shop owner mostly from himself, I suspect. The owner needs sensitivity training on how to treat soldiers the same way liberals would have conservatives do when they say something politically incorrect about minorities, gays or militant Muslims.

Hopefully, one day, the proprietor will wish he had served Sgt. Williams a free ice cream cone on Veterans Day instead of insulting him and all other veterans in the process.

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist for North Star Writers Group and an active army reserve officer. He can be reached through his web site: www.gregorydlee.com.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # GL058. Request permission to publish here.