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SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2016
N.G. Osteen 1843-1936 The Watchman and Southron
THE SUMTER ITEM
H.G. Osteen 1870-1955 Founder, The Item
H.D. Osteen 1904-1987 The Item
Margaret W. Osteen 1908-1996 The Item Hubert D. Osteen Jr. Chairman & Editor-in-Chief Graham Osteen Co-President Kyle Osteen Co-President Jack Osteen Editor and Publisher Larry Miller CEO Rick Carpenter Managing Editor
20 N. Magnolia St., Sumter, South Carolina 29150 • Founded October 15, 1894
‘Leave those good food service folks be’
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efore my career in journalism, I worked in food service for 14 years, and, in that time, I learned a few things about modern human behavior. Customers are now endowed with a set of rights and a sense of entitlement that is becoming increasingly problematic. We’re becoming a society so focused on our own individual needs and wants that we run roughshod over anyone or anything that stands in our path. I know what you’re thinking. “How do you know this, Cliff ?” Well, working on the front lines of this battle in food service, I can tell you about the most damning piece of evidence I have: the inability of customers to order off of a menu. Customers now seldom, if ever, fol-
COMMENTARY low the menu. Instead, they create their own dishes, fusing together various items that I’d previously thought were uncombinable, all in an effort to slake their desire for their perfect meal. I’ve received orders for quarter sandwiches, and I had to cut two pieces of bread into four distinct parts Cliff and make four tiny McCollum sandwiches. The key word in that sentence: had. Was forced to do so. In business, you have to keep the customers happy, even if their requests
are whackadoo and show a complete lack of understanding or logic. Businesses empower customers to act in such a manner because they are deathly afraid of bad word-of-mouth reviews in person or on Yelp. In small communities, a few negative customers can easily begat a going-outof-business sale. Because businesses empower customers to act this way, customers become emboldened and make even crazier demands. They show up 30 minutes after businesses have officially closed and expect to be waited on and served. They scream and yell, and they get their way, often getting free items from management wishing to quell any negative vibes. Folks, I implore you, be better cus-
tomers. Show retail staffers and food service employees the amount of respect you should show your fellow human beings. Pets get treated better than waiters in our society, and we allow it to happen. Realize businesses have limitations, and don’t expect your perfect item or dish to be there exactly as you envisioned it. If you do want to have things exactly your way, for all our sakes, stay at home. Don’t poison the world with your self-centeredness. Cut the crusts off of your own sandwich, and please leave those good food service folks be. Cliff McCollum is managing editor of Gulf Coast Media. He can be reached at cliff@gulfcoastmedia.com.
COMMENTARY
In his own words
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ne of the most effective political ads of the season features women repeating the many derogatory statements Donald Trump has made about the fairer sex. No editorial comment is needed when a candidate’s own words stand alone to expose his flaws and thus to condemn him. Just ask Mitt Romney, Kathleen whose 47 perParker cent remark effectively ended his presidential aspirations. Saying that he wasn’t worried about the 47 percent of people who are on some form of welfare was perceived as exposing a lack of compassion for the poor. Romney’s ruin on that account may not have been fair, but it was enough. Trump, by contrast, can say nearly anything and escape judgment from a majority of Republican primary voters. Hearing him refer to women as “bimbo,” “dog” or “fat pig,” — or discuss his own wives’ gastrointestinal functions with Howard Stern — have left him sufficiently unscathed. It is understood that Republicans rarely suffer for criticizing Hillary Clinton. “Hating Hillary” is a chronic obsession on the right, especially among men for whom Trump spoke when he recently told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that it was too early in the morning for him to listen to Clinton’s “shouting.” There’s no denying that a woman’s raised voice is every man’s nightmare — for so many obvious reasons. For similarly obvious reasons, it is never polite for a man to point this out. Unless it seems if you’re Trump. He and Scarborough were chatting about Trump’s recent comment that all Clinton had going for her was the female vote and accused her of playing the “woman’s card.” Just being a woman apparently is playing this card in Trump’s world where he prefers that women play the man’s card. Or, as Trump might say, his “whatever.” Why not put a bow on that while you’re at it, eh, chap? Despite the daunting competition, nothing else Trump has said has been further from the truth. That is, until he said it. In no time, Clinton’s campaign was offering a pink, credit card-sized “Woman Card” to online donors. Trump also provided Clinton the sort of touche moment atheists pray for: “Well, if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal
me in,” she said in an impassioned voice. (Trump-lator: Screeching like a wounded owl.) Adding confetti and champagne to his gift, Trump went on: “And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. ... And the beautiful thing is that women don’t like her, OK?” Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, roared the columnist from her bunker. Do we hear a hallelujah? Hallelujah! Thus heralding the obvious question: What if Trump were a woman? Imagine a Donna Trump running as a Republican who: • Got her start with more than $1 million from her father’s business, parlayed into billions via four bankruptcies and various business failures. • Wouldn’t disclose tax returns and donated to numerous Democrats, including Hillary Clinton. • Ran a university wracked by allegations of fraud. • Imported two of her three husbands from overseas, one of them on a “model” visa and dumped the second husband days before their prenuptial agreement could hurt her wallet. • Put her third husband on her plane, naked and handcuffed on a bear rug for a photo shoot she said was “classy.” • Said her son was so handsome she’d date him if he weren’t her son. • Said women who had abortions should be punished (if abortion were illegal). • Knew nothing about foreign policy or even how to pronounce the names of countries. • Routinely cursed, called people names, demonized her opponents, as well as Mexicans, Muslims and others, and called men dogs, morons and fat slobs. If Trump were a woman, not only would he not get 5 percent of the vote, he’d be tarred, feathered, branded and ridden out of town backward on a donkey. Voters male and female would recognize immediately that such a woman was inappropriate, lacking in quality and character, perhaps more than a little crazy — and utterly unqualified to be president of the United States. The only thing Trump’s got going for him, one is tempted to say, is the men’s vote, which is no way to deflect accusations of a GOP war on women. But as Trump himself would assert, at least he’s keeping it classy. Kathleen Parker’s email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com. © 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
LETTER TO THE EDITOR WRITER RECEIVES ‘EXCELLENT’ CARE AT PALMETTO HEALTH TUOMEY I recently had an unfortunate accident but had the good fortune to be cared for by an excellent team of dedicated professionals at Palmetto Health Tuomey. EMS arrived at our house in record time, and in particular, Elizabeth did an excellent job of taking care of me in a reassuring and calm manner. She made my first ride in an ambulance a lot less traumatic than I expected it would be. The emergency room staff was amazing to watch in action. I have never seen such frantic activity, but they all held up under well under the stress. I don’t know all the names of those on duty in the early evening hours on the April 25, but there was no one on duty who wasn’t working at full speed.
I was extremely fortunate to have the direct care of Dr. Joseph Degulis and Physician’s Assistant Sophia Raptis. I admired his knowledge and experience and especially noticed the way he mentored her and willingly shared his knowledge. I was very impressed with Ms. Raptis’ focus and attention to painstakingly suturing 25 stitches. Ms. Raptis has a very bright future ahead of her. I also truly appreciate Dr. Adam Przybyla. The entire staff at Sumter Surgical continues to be there for me when I need them the most. I am proud to be a resident of Sumter where we have such a fine medical facility with outstanding professionals who go the extra mile to care for their patients. SALINDA A. LARABEE Sumter
NOTABLE & QUOTABLE In “If Not Trump, What?” David Brooks writes that “Donald Trump now looks set to be the Republican presidential nominee. So for those of us appalled by this prospect — what are we supposed to do?” Read it online at www.nytimes.com: Well, not what the leaders of the Republican Party are doing. They’re going down meekly and hoping for a quiet convention. They seem blithely unaware that this is a Joe McCarthy moment. People will be judged by where they stood at this time. Those who walked with Trump will be tainted forever after for the degradation of standards and the general election slaughter. The better course for all of us — Republican, Democrat and independent — is to step back and take the long view and to begin building for that. This election — not only the Trump phenomenon but the rise of Bernie Sanders, also — has reminded us how much pain there is in this country.
Trump’s success grew out of that pain, but he is not the right response to it. The job for the rest of us is to figure out the right response. ••• From “Gender — good for nothing,” Lionel Shriver writes that “Our preoccupation with gender identity is a cultural step backwards. For me, the self transcends sex.” Read it online at www. prospectmagazine.co.uk: I was a tomboy as a kid and scrabbled in the dirt with my brothers playing with model cars and making toy trains crash spectacularly from a height. I shunned Barbies and detested baby dolls. I reviled dresses, spurning lace and flounces for jeans and flannel shirts. At 15, I changed my name from Margaret to Lionel. Were I to have grown up 50, 60 years later, it’s entirely possible that my parents would have taken me to see a therapist and put me on hormone therapy.
I’m glad they didn’t. Not because being a woman is so swell, but because being either a woman or a man doesn’t matter that much to me. I certainly experience myself as female in relation to other people. But alone in a room, falling asleep, hiking by myself in the woods, writing at my computer, thinking—I do not experience myself first and foremost as a woman. . . . For all of Facebook’s 71-genders-and-counting, the experience of self cannot be all that different. Oh, our characters are different. But the crucial constituents of our characters have little to do with gender, unless we insist on labeling clumps of qualities – forcefulness, violence, inability to cry; tenderness, consideration, inability to drive – as exclusively male and female, which they are not. ... We’re in the process of taking a giant cultural step backwards. Notable & Quotable is compiled by Graham Osteen. Contact him at graham@ theitem.com.