As a bleeding heart liberal, you would think that I would be all for civil rights, but on Friday, I realized that I am pretty selective about what I consider an infringement of civil rights.
Let me explain before deciding I am a big jerk:
We did a pit stop at a McDonald's on the way to Pennsylvania and were waiting for Rebecca's Happy Meal when a lady came up and ordered unsweetened iced tea with her Value Meal. The bored girl behind the counter gave her the iced tea, and the lady walked away with it, only to return shaking with rage. I mean that literally, by the way, I thought she was going to start throwing punches. She said it was indeed sweetened and started screaming about the error. The girl behind the counter cooly got a manager (wisely decided minimum wage is not worth getting screamed at about soft drinks) who got the customer another cup of tea, which the lady then deemed acceptable.
Christoph and I raised our eyebrows at each other and got our food, thinking the storm had blown over.
We were lucky enough to have set up camp near the crazy iced tea lady, who was whipping out her phone to call McDonald's customer service. The fact that she knew the number by heart should have tipped us off to what was to come. She started screaming at the representative on the other end of the phone, saying she has diabetes and she is SICK AND TIRED of having her CIVIL RIGHTS infringed upon at McDonald's. You see, she goes there almost every day, and at least once a week, she gets the wrong iced tea. She apparently had already written to the President of McDonald's about this particular store that she regularly patronizes, informing him that they're going to have a civil rights lawsuit on their hands if the store ever does it again. Lucky us, we were sitting there when she announced that the only thing that would appease her now would be a personal apology from the President (hold your breath on that one, unless she meant Dubya, he will have time for that stuff soon enough.)
This is not the first strange encounter we have had in Allentown (now we know what Billy Joel as talking about) and I couldn't help but ask myself (Carrie Bradshaw style) if this is how some of those ridiculous lawsuits start.
Yes, McDonald's is killing us all slowly, I do agree. But I think the iced tea is the least of it. And it seems odd to me to continue going to the crappy fast food place that is infringing on your civil rights in such a blatant and dangerous way, if that is what you truly believe.
I personally think the Mad Cow will get her before the sugar does, and that those people who are suffering true civil rights infringements must despise people like that.
