Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

December 21, 2007

Joe Vento is owner of Geno's Steaks, a Philadelphia restaurant famed for its Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. In October 2005 he posted a small sign at his establishment reading: ?This is America. When ordering please speak English.?

This commonsense business gesture was widely applauded by advocates of immigration reform, and passionately assailed by the self-appointed custodians of official tolerance. Vento himself has been summoned by the local sensitivity Soviet ? the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations ? to answer charges of discrimination against, and ?intimidation? of, non-English-speaking people.

A business owner should be perfectly free to discriminate among potential customers; if his policies alienate some portion of them, he forfeits their business and the potential profits therefrom.

Vento started with $6 in his pocket four decades ago and built a multi-million-dollar business. Unlike his official persecutors, he is a productive individual who knows how to please a customer base.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.