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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
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Announcement :: Protest Activity |
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Boycott Firehaus! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Martin Smith
Email: send2smith (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)
Phone: (217) 649-8830 |
05 Jun 2006
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Boycott Firehaus!
Bar/Restaurant condones harassment of anti-war customer by druken bar patron. |
please forward widely!
Dear Friends:
On Monday, June 5, after a summer school session, several of my classmates and I decided to go to Firehaus at 708 S. Sixth Street, a bar/restaurant that has decent food and offers a nicer atmosphere than most Green St./campus bars. This particular evening, I was wearing a "U.S. Out of Iraq" tshirt that is one of the numerous anti-war shirts that I wear as a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Given the immoral war launched by the Bush administration and the thousands of needless deaths that have been lost for oil profits, my tshirt represents a small statement in opposition to the lies of our government and to the war crimes committed by the U.S. military at Abu Gharib and Haditha.
When I went to the bathroom on this evening, a drunken bar patron cornered me and began hurling epithets at me for wearing a tshirt in opposition to the war, following me to my table. When I reported the bar patron's conduct to the manager, I was simply told that this customer was a regular and that there was nothing the bar was willing to do. The hostile and threatening actions by the bar patron would not have been considered appropriate behavior under any other circumstance; however, I believe that because the patron was directing his epithets at me for wearing an anti-war tshirt, the manager consented and refused to remove the drunken patron from the bar.
The complicity of the manager in condoning this bar patron's actions should be seen as a serious threat to free speech and dissent in the campus community. The ability of bar patron to freely intimidate and harass customers in a bar/restaurant for wearing a tshirt is merely a step removed from the ability of persons to harass people on campus and in the broader Champaign/Urbana community.
I ask you to Boycott Firehaus and to refuse to give them your business. I also call on the general manager of Firehaus to train their staff in how to properly intervene in their customer's behavior if they exhibit hostile and threatening actions towards other patrons. All members of the Champaign/Urbana community should feel safe to voice their dissent through free speech in any appropriate venue. I will proudly continue to wear my anti-war tshirts and buttons, and I hope you will too!
Bring the Troops Home Now!
Martin Smith |
This work is in the public domain |
