Last Wednesday, a Houston waiter at Laurenzo’s Prime Rib showed great bravery and moral character after he refused to serve a group of regular customers after they insulted a special needs child.
Milo Castillo, a five year old child with Down’s syndrome, has been a regular patron of the restaurant for most of his life. This little child has become quite the superstar among the staff over the years and is especially popular with the waiters. Since the family hadn’t been to the restraint for a few weeks, Milo was busy loudly recounting his recent birthday to, well, to anyone who would listen.
Waiter Michael Garcia was in charge of the Castillo’s and another group of customer’s tables, which were located just across from each other. About ten minutes in to what was appearing to be just another regular dinner service, the family across from the Castillos got up and switched to a table far, far away.
Initially, Garcia thought nothing of the action; however, soon their motives became clear to him. He overheard one of the customers, most likely the father, state that “special needs children need to be ‘special’ somewhere else.” Shocked that anyone would say that in front of his own kids, Garcia briefly considered the safely of his job before declaring to the group that he could no longer continue to serve them. After threatening to leave, the rude family left the restaurant (but not before they could give the Castillos some icy stares on their way out).
Thankfully, Garcia did NOT lose his job for “standing up for others who can’t stand up for themselves,” and was in fact given much praise and support from other customers, staff members, and the Laurenzo’s, who own the restaurant, for his noble deed. The Castillos were unaware of what had taken place and only much later were they informed by someone else how Garcia had stood up for Milo. Kim, Milo’s mother, was extremely impressed and grateful towards Garcia, glad “that somebody would stand up for another human being.”
I think this story has extra special significance, being it so close to MLK Day. Michael Garcia is truly living Dr. King’s great dream, a dream we all ought to share, a dream where social discrimination and prejudices no longer exists. It’s just a little sad that not everyone believes in this dream too, and for now, his dream will remain unrealized.
This story is also significant to me personally. I have an aunt who has Down’s and she is one of my favorite people in the world. Since my family is not only very close but also very religious, whenever we all are together, we go to mass together. And that means that we all have to listen to her sing. Her singing is like the sound of a dying sheep with a red hot poker being shoved up its buttocks, only worse. Much worse. But in a way, it’s the most beautiful sound of all, because it is the sound of pure innocence and of pure love of God. She is the most holy person I know and she doesn’t even know it!!
Inevitably, there are people who get mad or upset whenever she sings, and I have grown accustomed to the stares, the rude comments, and the people desperately trying to flee to the opposite side of the Church. And the thing is, I could almost understand it and condone it if IT WASN’T HAPPENING IN A FREAKING CHURCH for goodness’s sake.
As for the incident in Houston, I could almost understand it if it was all done because some five year old child was being loud about his birthday. I mean, that would bug the hell outta anyone! But it wasn’t. The complaints were made because some child had a mental condition and ought to be put somewhere else. And that is totally unacceptable.
And do you know the worst part? I guarantee that there are people at Prep who would have made similar degrading comments too, based solely on that other person being “different,” in any sense of the word.
Do you know how I know? BECAUSE IT’S ALREADY HAPPENED. Unless you would like to tell the mentally challenged customer at Buffalo Wild Wing’s who was mocked past his breaking point by Prep students just last December that it was “just a joke” or “just a little tease.”
Are we really all that different? Because it doesn’t look like we are.
And take a look at this news report of the incident:
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