Point/Counterpoint | Was it wrong to tweet personal 9/11 feelings after serving George W. Bush at a restaurant?
“George and Laura Bush walk into a restaurant...” isn’t the usual start to most stories. But for waitress Leisa Smith, it was the start to a story she maybe doesn’t want shared too much anymore.
Smith took a $21.47 order from George and Laura, including a burger order from George that asked his be nowhere near mustard. The Bush couple enjoyed their experience so much, they took a picture with the waitress and tipped $40 on a $21 tab. The waitress enjoyed their company so much, she did what any service industry worker would do these days: She went to Twitter. She tweeted the picture of her new presidental friends with the tweet “bush did 911 but he did me a solid and left me a hella tip #.” (Don’t even get me started on what social media is doing to punctuation in this nation.)
It started a viral wildfire, and Smith ended up taking the tweet down and sayinng she doesn’t think Bush “did” 911, and later confirmed the couple was very nice.
So we have to ask: Was it wrong to tweet personal 9/11 feelings after serving George W. Bush at a restaurant?
Yes it was
This woman is everything that is wrong with this generation: pose for a picture with someone, disrespect them although they’ve treated you well, put them on blast on social media and use the excuse of “I didn’t know it would go viral.” Boo-friggin-hoo.
Those of us along the Grand Strand are in the land of the service industry workers. There is unspoken pledge you agree to with two kinds of people: Your employer and yourt co-workers. To your employer, you vow to be honest, work hard and not to embarass them. To your co-workers: you voew to help them out and (if you’re into this) to talk shit about customers at a mutually agreed upon bar afterwards. Social media is not the place to put anyone, including a former President and First Lady, on blast.
No it wasn’t
‘Memba that office Bush served in? The Presidency, I think they call it. That office made Mr. Bush well aware of people’s freedoms, including freedom of speech. It has also given him pretty thick skin. So a comment made by someone serving him, which she later redacted, surely didn’t hurt the former President.
People in this God forsaken country still have freedom of speech, don’t we? At press time, speech was still a freedom we had. If she feels that way, which it turns out she doesn’t, then she’s free to say that. When will we all stop getting our feelinsg hurt over the smallest of things?
This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 8:53 AM with the headline "Point/Counterpoint | Was it wrong to tweet personal 9/11 feelings after serving George W. Bush at a restaurant?."