Posted on 10/12/2011 8:36:59 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
ANNISTON, Ala. -- Officials with the parent company of Olive Garden restaurants say they're sorry if a decision regarding an Alabama Kiwanis club's desire to display the American flag caused any concern.
The comments come after 80-year-old Marti Warren of Anniston said she wasn't allowed to bring an American flag into an Olive Garden for a planned Kiwanis Club banquet in the east Alabama town of Oxford.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs12.com ...
UPDATE: OLIVE GARDEN apologizes, allows U.S. flag in restaurant...
http://www.myfoxal.com/story/15681535/olive-garden-apologizes-to-kiwanis-club
(Don’t know if this has been posted as a new thread yet.)
Thanks! I bet they got hammered with calls and emails yesterday!
Yep. I saw that. I bet this corporate-speak bullsh!t of theirs will cost them millions in lost revenue before it’s over. Idiots.
Another win for conservatives! It’s getting more difficult to let these jackwagons do these kinds of things since the advent of the Internet.
Read: We have been taking loads of crap, business is off and we really screwed up. Please forgive us, make nice and come back to our place.
Not me Jack.
For what it is worth, here is the response I got back after I sent them an email:
Dear Robert,
We are very sorry for any misunderstanding about this issue. We do not have a policy at Olive Garden concerning bringing the American flag into our restaurants. Some members of our team were misinformed about company policy by our corporate office. As a company we take responsibility for that and we regret it. We take pride in how we communicate to our restaurants and we are correcting this so it doesn’t happen again. Like all Americans we have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the American flag and everything it symbolizes. In fact, we periodically provide American flag collar pins to our employees to wear while serving guests. We welcome anyone who wishes to bring the flag into our restaurants.
Sincerely,
John Caron
President, Olive Garden
I don’t care for their food, that much is true, but how much of this was drummed up to be more than a chain manager who took issue (probably a liberal anyway)?
The head of Darden has embraced Michelle Obama’s ‘food nazi’ program and has made french fries ‘PG’. They also got an Obamacare waiver. I refused to eat there because of that...BEFORE this incident.
I hadn’t eaten there in years because I don’t like their food, but those are certainly valid reasons not to.
I can remember eating at our local Red Lobster YEARS ago. It was a real TREAT that my parents would let me order lobster. And I mean.....they were HUGE!!!!! A couple of years ago I ordered one....and it might was well had been scampi. Not worth the money, quite frankly.
LOL...living in Massachusetts, it is hard for me to go to Red Lobster when there are so many places that serve excellent seafood and lobster.
I think some people go there for the all you can eat things (I see them advertised) but I broke myself of that practice years ago when I was in the Navy.
I was at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL, and a bunch of us went to a restaurant that had “all you can eat” shrimp...fried or boiled.
Well, we got into a shrimp eating contest, and I won.
Worst thing that ever happened to me (eating-wise). I was in agony, lying in the back of a pickup truck driving back to the base. It was awful.
For years after, I couldn’t eat shrimp. I had been my favorite thing before that, but after that, I couldn’t stomach it.
Now I am okay and love shrimp again, but...I learned a lesson. I steer clear of “all you can eat” things. (although if Howard Johnson’s ever came back and made clam strips they way they used to, I would make an exception...:)
We have a private biz just down the street who drives to the Gulf twice a week with a fridge truck to get fresh seafood. I LOVE it! Best shrimp EVER!!! I was soooo worried about them during the BP scare.....but they have survived. Small businesses get my custom, now. Especially in this hostile climate.
Is the size of the flag mentioned anywhere?
Is the size of the flag mentioned anywhere?
Reality sort of trumps anything else, doesn’t it?
The Serenity Prayer is usually a good place (at least for me) to start:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
In this single case, it certainly doesn't fall into the "accept the things I cannot change" category. Granted, it isn't an earth-shaking thing, but a lot of like-minded people contacted the organization, and I will bet this kind of "misunderstanding" or "miscommunication" will be a bit less likely to happen in the future.
If you don’t accept reality, what do you accept? Something unrealistic?
“Yep. Olive Garden, like “Chillis”, “Ruby Tuesday”, or pretty much anything in the Darden family of restaurants, is a “safe” place. Like for large company lunches, or family get-togethers. “
Chilis is owned by Brinker International. Ruby Tuesday is its own company, IIRC. Neither of them are in the Darden family.
Newspapers gave the finger to the half of American citizens who are conservative - and it hasn't hurt them... Oh wait, they're going under. Never mind...
If you were living in a house with a hole in the roof that rainwater would leak through in storms, that is reality.
But do you just “accept” that “reality” and sit there every rainstorm with water dripping on your head?
Of course you don’t accept that, at least if you have an ounce of gumption in you.
You change the reality by fixing the roof.
In this case, the reality may be that Olive Garden didn’t allow people to display the American flag at a function. But rather than just sit there and gripe about it to each other, people changed that reality, not by fixing the roof, but by taking a few minutes to let the chain know how they feel.
There is a requirement that one must recognize reality, but there is no requirement that one must accept it. Reality can be changed to create a new reality.
That is all I am saying.
I don’t think fixing a roof, is the same as fixing the way people think because you disagree with them.
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