EDITOR: On the day before Memorial Day, I was sitting in a
tavern downtown and a man came in and went straight to the
restroom. He came out and walked behind me, I heard a very loud
voice saying something like,
“What is wrong with you people? Is this the thanks I get for
buying all of you drinks on Memorial Day? I came to this country
and I’m proud and thankful that I came and I’m proud and thankful
and I try to show my appreciation and this is the way you act?”
EDITOR:
On the day before Memorial Day, I was sitting in a tavern downtown and a man came in and went straight to the restroom. He came out and walked behind me, I heard a very loud voice saying something like, “What is wrong with you people? Is this the thanks I get for buying all of you drinks on Memorial Day? I came to this country and I’m proud and thankful that I came and I’m proud and thankful and I try to show my appreciation and this is the way you act?”
This name calling really insulted me, so I got up and walked up to this man and said, “What are you talking about and why are you calling us names like that?”
He said, “I bought drinks for everyone here and no one thanked me or even acknowledged that I was here.”
I said to him, looking up and down the bar, “What drinks!” He looked up and down the bar also and said, “Oh, I didn’t buy drinks?” And I said, “Not that I know of.” He then sat down and I went beck and sat down. He left soon after that.
As a decorated veteran, this incident really offended me. I took it as a meaning I was unappreciative of our country that a lot of our friends fought for, and some of them died for. Speaking of dying for your country, the next day was Memorial Day, but I didn’t seem to see this man at the service at the Veterans Square in the downtown. If Mr. Carlos Suarez-Pinto was really wanting to show his feeling, then why didn’t he come to this Memorial Day service? To me, showing appreciation to those who gave it all for this country would be more appropriate than buying drinks for people in a tavern.
This man had a good experience at the Quail Canyon Inn, he says, but he seems to not recall four or five months ago he came into this same tavern (referring to his letter to the editor in The Times, June 10) and he called for everyone’s attention and thanked all us Americans and told us how much he appreciated America and bought all of us all a drink. Everyone clapped and said thank you very much and he left soon after.
Now, Mr. Carlos Suarez-Pinto, your last line in your letter says, “It is the lesson I want to teach my children.”
I’m sure you showed your letter to your children, now let’s see if you will show them mine. Seems to me that it would be a good lesson for them to see how democracy works when two voices can be heard instead of only one.
Terry E. Howell, Morgan Hill
