There is a lawmaker in California who wanted to impose a $1000 fine on waiters and waitresses who serve a drink with an unrequested straw. Oh, and a possibly 6 months in jail. The genius behind this idea is Ian Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California’s lower house. The reasoning is that straws are bad for the environment, they end up in waterways, blah, blah, blah. I don’t deny that we should use fewer straws each year. I also don’t think it’s a bad idea to make customers request them instead of automatically giving one to every person who orders a drink. It’s no different from when there is a water shortage and customers have to ask for water to be served at the table. But to suggest that a waiter should be fined $1000 for giving out an unsolicited straw is bullshit. Fining the server is like punishing literally the lowest man on the straw totem pole, Mr. Calderon. If you’re itching to fine someone, why not fine the customer who uses the straw even though they didn’t ask for it? Or how about the restaurant itself for even having these instruments of Satan? Or better yet, why not aim at the manufacturer of the straws and make them pay a certain amount of their profits to an eco-friendly organization or require them to recycle a percentage of the plastic they use? Don’t try to fine a server $1000 or send his ass to jail because he has a handful of straws in his apron and he gave one to a six-year old kid who didn’t ask for it with their Shirley Temple.
After this story hit the media, Mr. Calderon probably got bitch slapped by every waiter and waitress in California because it was soon announced that the fines were to be removed from the bill. I tweeted to him about the $1000 fine and he replied, “The penalties are attached to the code section the bill is currently in. That will change. Amendments are part of the legislative process.”
No, not really. The penalties are attached to the code section the bill is currently in. That will change. Amendments are part of the legislative process.
— Ian C. Calderon (@IanCalderon) January 26, 2018
You know what else is part of the legislative process, Mr. Calderon? The opinions of the people in this country who will be affected by the laws that you create. My opinion is that you came up with this “$1000 fine for waiters” bullshit just to get some headlines and attention for your otherwise good idea. Congratulations, it worked. Dozens of servers have sent me links about your proposed bill and you probably got a political boner every time someone shared it. You got the attention you wanted and now you have agreed to take out the most ridiculous part of the bill. I hope you do come up with a way to save the environment by cutting back on the usage of straws. While you’re at it, why not do something about the plastic to-go utensils restaurants throw into every bag of food that gets wrapped up? Most of that food is going to a home where I presume there is actual silverware meaning the plastic ones get tossed into the garbage. Keep up the good fight. Just don’t suggest that it’s a server’s responsibility to dig into an apron in order to pay a penalty for distributing a straw. Very few servers I know have an apron deep enough to find $1000.
You can find Ian Calderon on Twitter by clicking here. Tell him I said hello.
Karl Kolchak
Thanks for the reminder that it is ALL politicians who are making life in America a living hell and not just the Republicans. What a colossal douchebag.
Catherine
Why not just fine the restaurant for not providing paper straws? Anyone old enough to remember them? Do they even still make them? If they still make them, then why aren’t restaurants using them? I’m sure they’d cost more then the plastic ones and the restaurant’s don’t what to screw with the profit margins.
Alan
This guy is probably a protege of California Governor Jerry Brown. Even by liberal standards, Brown is a serious moonbat loon!
J
Ian you pos go fuck yourself with $1000 worth of straws!!!! With your logic you might as well punish car salesman for making potential pollution! What a moron!
Butts
Currently live in California, have worked many years as a server…
1. Fuck this motherfucker for passing this responsibility on to the server. Fuck him.
2. For real you do not get a water here unless you ask for one. That was tough to learn after waiting tables in EST. Our recycling bins are twice as large as our trash bins. We all have fucking evacuation bags packed and battery powered radios in case of climate-changed causing fires. I get this dickweed’s concern.
3. Don’t you fucking dare pass this off on the server, you awful idiot.
Serenity
and let’s not forget, literally every time I DON”T give someone a straw, they ask for one. Bc people are weird about that at a restaurant. Even though our glasses have gone thru a dishwasher that sterilizes them, they are afraid of putting their mouths on them. People, our glasses we bring to the table are cleaner than the ones at your house, I promise.