October 21, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Here's a fascinating little tidbit
Here's a fascinating little tidbit -- a woman who was fired by Costco for refusing to remove her eyebrow ring is suing for, get this, religious discrimination. She claims to belong to the Church of Body Modification, which requires her to wear these things.
This is. . . what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, right, I can't use that word on a family blog. It's a crock, that's what it is. And it's really quite apalling. One hesitates to ask "Is nothing sacred?", but really, what other words will do? When you make up an entirely specious religion in a juvenile attempt to shelter your fashion choices behind the first amendment, what sort of morally bankrupt person are you? One realizes the judges are hesitant to start making pronouncements on what constitutes a "real" religion, but really, where will it end? The Church of Drinking at Work and Telling My Boss to Go [Censored]?
Well, not everything has a legal solution; sometimes, the social realm has to take over. Unfortunately, one imagines that this woman's sniggering little friends think this is all too cool. In time, however, she will grow up, and have to get other jobs, and work with real live adults who have better things to do than debase freedom of religion in this country in order to protect their right to accessorize. So, her name is Kimberly M. Cloutier of West Springfield, Massachussetts, and I'd like to urge, from this humble platform, that if you should ever run into Miss Cloutier, you do your best to know what the rest of society thinks of this sort of behavior. If you are an employer, I will point out that while it is not legal to make a hiring decision on the basis of someone's religion, it is perfectly legal to make it on the basis of their being an amoral twit. So if Kimberly M. Cloutier's resume ever comes across your desk, don't hesitate to send it to the circular file. And if you meet her socially, don't hesitate to give her what for. Politely, of course. There's no need to descend to her level.
Posted by Jane Galt at October 21, 2002 9:09 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links