And Now for an Angry Populist Rant of My Own

I am shocked and appalled. Not about the economy or AIG- rich people taking advantage of a situation shouldn’t surprise anyone. But no, I’m shocked and appalled that once again, I, as a vegetarian, have been discriminated against!

Well, not shocked really. This stupid shit happens all the time. And not so much “appalled” as “quite annoyed.” But still!

At work today we ordered Chili’s, one person (Amanda, who gets an A for effort) went and got it, all should be well. Except my veggie burger with cheddar cheese and no onions, french fries and a side of honey barbeque sauce- all of which was marked on the box- came back as a well-charcoaled regular burger with cheddar cheese, nothing else at all on it, and fries with not even ketchup to dip in. An outrage! And no one at work could spare the thirty minutes needed to drive across town and complain because, oh yeah, we’re at work doing our jobs. So we called them, complained, and their response was….

…. They’ll mail a gift card to me to try to make up for it. Meanwhile, I’m stuck with no burger, and told to just deal. Which is ridiculous! It was they’re mistake, they should fix it. Mu lunching experience shouldn’t have to suffer from their incompetence. It was an honest mistake, I know that, but shouldn’t there be someone available to fix the situation some how? Why can’t a manager drive me a new burger? Seriously!

If I were Jewish and ate kosher, and they handed me pork ribs and told me to deal, that would be religious persecution. Same if I was Hindi and they tried to give me a steak. But my being a vegetarian is a personal choice, and I’m often stuck “having to deal” with it. I’ve been to several banquets over the last few years where the vegetarian choices consisted of potatoes, a roll, and maybe a light salad f I was lucky. Yet, naturally, there are six different meat choices. But I’m supposed to be thrilled that they thought of me and brought lumpy potatoes.

All I’m saying is that there are a lot of vegetarians out there. The Vegetarian Resource Group studies show that about 3% of Americans are vegetarians. That’s 9,000,000 people in this country that don’t eat meat- that’s more than the population of New York City. Nine million people, and yet the only fast food restaurant that serves veggie burgers in Burger King (and they’re not all that great, either). Seriously.

It’s just that it would be nice if the general population showed a little more respect towards vegetarians in general. We’re people too. We just don’t eat things that once had faces.

And yes, this entire post could have been avoided if Chili’s had gotten me a veggie burger in the first place. *grumble*