those damn freedom fries!
so on my office cafeteria's menu today, the phrase (in quotes) "freedom fries" glared at me like nothing else.
so of course, i had to say something about it.

there weren't that many people in the cafeteria, so i told the chef that i didn't appreciate the political nature of that statement. i think it's one thing to be patriotic, but changing the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries" is an ignorant and controversial response to a very complex political and global situation. something that the workplace shouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, unless your job is like, the president of the country or something.

we talked about this for a little bit, with the chef in quite obvious disagreement with me, and disregard of my concerns. he told me that he loves france! he is ancestrally french! he thinks the french government is selfish, whereas the united states is not selfish. yes, he said that. i do not think that france made the right decision to threaten to veto any US led security council resolution. in fact, i think the whole existence of veto power on the UNSC is just silly and hindering. look at the cold war, for example. while i do agree with the french government's opinions about the war and about the united states government, i do wish they hadn't pulled the veto card. i digress.

my basic argument wasn't that this response was ignorant (which i do believe), but that this highly charged political issue should not enter the workplace. his response: "do you really think this is about politics? no. people love this stuff."

and voila, my fears are founded. we are sheep. we don't think politically. we don't think globally.

although an interesting side effect of this whole "freedom" and "liberty" fiasco is that we're equating the word "french" with "freedom."