And a side of fries please....

Last night was a normal Thursday night. I left work after my shift, drove home to pick up Tiny But Mighty for her piano lesson. After piano we got groceries, so at 7:15 we had not eaten and were still in town. I decided to go to the big chain chicken fast food place.

The line at the drive thru was a bit long but that is to be expected in a small community when the restaurant is cooking chicken. Cooking chicken takes time right? 

There was a white truck in front of me in the drive thru that kept reversing, then turning the truck off etc. I waited in line about fifteen minutes and honestly didn't think much about it, until I got to the window. When I got to the window I realized that the man who had been in the truck in front of me was inside the store. I was horrified to see him raging around the room and threatening the staff, even going so far as to follow one woman into the kitchen while screaming at her and slamming things. I looked up at the youth in the window and said "I'm phoning the police." The young man looked quite pale as he nodded and said "Please." 

I called 911 and as I was giving my information I told the operator " I will stay on the phone but they need someone now." TBM observed the whole thing quietly and upon hearing me through the window telling the police what was happening the man fled. 

Here is the point I wish to make dear reader. This man waited in line at a fast food restaurant drive thru that serves only chicken for fifteen minutes. To a reasonable person this would be an indication that they were cooking a fresh batch of chicken right? This person believed that because he was unhappy with how long he waited he had the right to not just complain but to terrorize the staff in this business. He believed it was ok to behave so violently and so aggressively that he scared my daughter outside of the building in my vehicle.....because he had to wait for his food to be properly and safely cooked. Now I am sure this is not an everyday occurrence and I myself have gone into a fast food place from the drive thru because I was unhappy with my order or the service, but those are people working in there. Someone's children, parents, siblings, and you made them feel unsafe and you threatened them .... over chicken. The minimum wage is under debate ini my province and our neighbors to the west and I see memes on facebook and the internet all the tiem making fun of service industry workers and saying they don't deserve more money. Let me be perfectly clear here. 

The minimum wage was set in order to guarantee fair treatment for workers and minimum wage earners are in jobs ( such as gas station attendant or food service) where they tend to suffer abuse, robbery and violence far more that your average office worker, professional, or oilfield worker. Ironically the people complaining about the minimum wage increase are the people who can afford to pay an extra fifty cents for a burger. 

What kind of world do we live in when we treat the people who serve us like trash, like non humans? Would this man treat his wife or mother this way because his meal wasn't ready upon demand? Those people got treated that way and terrorized and in compensation they received less than the cost of a meal. What kimd of world indeed.