I Have a Face. WE Have a Face.

by Crystal Laramore Lutz

Edited by Deborah K. Martin

Thursday night I was in my restaurant behind my bar, craving some hot tea. In the middle of mindlessly opening the refrigerator and pouring the half and half in my tea (the way our forefathers always did), an overwhelming sense of belonging and comfort passed over me.

Here I am, in my very own business with two of my staff members on a slow, cold, Texas winter night; satisfying my whim for English-style tea, decorating the restaurant for Christmas and preparing to make the Christmas holidays merry for all who bless us with their patronage. And by their patronage I mean their greenbacks; their dough; their hard earned money; their cash, their time.

How blessed I am to be able to provide a warm, safe, welcoming atmosphere along with great food and drinks and how blessed “they” are to have it being offered; but how long will the blessings last? Obama and Pelosi and the SEIU and organized labor unions and the IRS and the likes are doing everything they can do to destroy our blessings. Or at least that is how it feels.

Most of you know I was in Baghdad, Iraq for almost two years working with the Department of State and serving my military (that’s right, I said “my” military.) When I finally arrived back on U.S. soil and “settled in” (as if…) I was walking through the restaurant one night in the dark and alone yet felt like I was hanging out with an old friend; it was that safe comfortable feeling. It’s the deep in your heart passionate love feeling that only comes through strife, conflict, blood, sweat, tears, fighting, making up, leaving, coming back, sharing, caring, putting 110% of yourself into it kind of feeling.

When you own a small business or work for a small business this is how you feel and if you don’t you should quit. Every day you put your heart and soul into it and quite frequently you get to see the fruits of your labor instantly. It’s not like a big, cold, steel building in a big city where you work your life away and never see any rewards except for your paycheck; yet people drive to work everyday with little internal reward or peace. They drive to work, I drive my country.

Just in case you don’t know who’s driving your country it’s me, and I have a face. It’s Tabitha Marsden and she has a face. It’s Austin Piwko and he has a face. It’s Rosa Corzine and Laura Kretzchmar and they have a face.

And when Obama speaks I’d like him to look us in the face. I’d like the man driving my country (into the ground) to look at me when he’s talking to me. Instead it’s like watching a tennis match Paula said. Oh and she, Paula Harper, has a face. Maybe he doesn’t look directly into the camera for fear he might see our hearts…breaking. Maybe he knows that we know that he’s a sell-out.

I heard him say that small business owners have learned how to get more from their employees. Well, of course. Isn’t increased productivity a good thing? Isn’t finding better ways to do business a good thing? I guess not because he says they (the small business owners) only did it to wring more profits from their businesses at the expense of their employees. I’m confused and more than a little insulted by that remark.

There is little profit in this small restaurant. We have a LOT of love, a lot of great atmosphere and a load of hospitality. We have a great time here while we work really hard, but there’s not a lot of profit. No, most of that goes right back into the business, which consists of real-live people, to make it better. We make our contribution to the community in a few reliable jobs, a lot of donations and some really good food. We even hold fundraisers here on a regular basis because we actually care about our community. Will it add to our profits? Not likely. But it adds to our hearts.

I wonder what may happen as our country changes. Will I be able to stay in business if I’m forced to raise wages? No, that will only force me to cut jobs. Will I be more profitable when I am forced to buy all my employees insurance? Don’t get me wrong. If I could I would. But if faced with being jobless or insurance-less I bet my employees would rather have a regular paycheck than socialized insurance. Just ask them.

And I often wonder which one of my employees do I let go when the taxes are too much of a burden? Paula; with 4 children to support and no college education? Austin; a college student trying to live on his own? Tabathia; a foster child and college student trying to save enough money to let go of the “System”? Rosa; a foster child in high school trying to save money for a car so she is ready when the time comes to let go of the “System”? Renee; my cleaning woman? Laura; my bartender who is going back to college as an adult to get a teaching certificate and barely making ends meet? You tell me.

Our business is small. Our hearts are big. Our faith is strong. We are the face of small business. We are the ones keeping your community vibrant. I am the owner and they are my employees who always know your name; the ones who asks “How’s yer mama’en them doin’?” Because we care.

I have a face. WE have a face.

Tea Party Speech

by Crystal Laramore

Good evening! If I had known I was going to be speaking tonight I’d have worn lipstick. My favorite color is Sarah Palin Red!

Let me apologize in advance if I jump around a bit. My staff forgot the teleprompter. I’ll be forced to speak from experience, knowledge and from the heart.

Before I came to the podium I noticed my future step-daughter, LaRen (aged 6), playing in the dirt and my first instinct was to tell her to ‘stop it. My second, more rational, thought was ‘Dig deep. Spread some to the other children here. It is after all your dirt. You’re the one that is going to be paying for it; again’.

When people ask me to speak at events I always want to talk about commitment; the attention to it and the lack of it. Maybe you’ve noticed that the line between conservative politics and liberal politics has a deep divide these days. The divide didn’t just happen all of a sudden folks; it’s been progressing for decades. We, the conservative minded have just not been very committed to stopping it. We keep ‘hoping for the best’. Well, these tea parties that are springing up all over our great nation are a sign that we have realized that hoping and doing are two different things.

Liberals, far to the left liberals, have however been doing and working and talking and stealing and lying and cheating us with a fervor deep in their bellies while we have been ‘hoping for the best’. Why? Because THEY are, and have been for a long time, committed. They are committed to their cause. They are organized in the name of their cause. And their cause is for us to provide for them. And they start with YOUR children. Get the book “The Death of Right and Wrong” by Tammy Bruce.

Do you want to know why so many children are liberals today? And by children I mean anyone under 35. Because the left is committed. And organized. And they have functions and rallies and it’s FUN to be a liberal. And everything is about acceptance. And they spin it until the collective, rational little minds you sent off to school become fuzzy and tainted and liberal. Then they grow up and don’t have any money and need to come back home. Or, by the grace of God they grow up, get fed up, and build their own home!

The middle class in America is rapidly shrinking. And how can it not with one class providing for two others. Yes, we are not only providing for the entitled poor, we are also providing for the entitled wealthy.

Being from a small community there isn’t a lot of money to go around to support sports leagues, cheerleaders, the library, Lions Club, Women’s League, Prom, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League, FFA, Basketball Organizations, Senior Citizens, Toys for Tots, Senior Trips, miscellaneous fundraisers like the yearbook, band, etc.

Now, almost every single month at least 6 organizations show up on my front door asking for donations. Since the bailout by GW and the expansion and movement toward socialism by Obama I’ve posted a letter outside my restaurant:

Our donation quota for the month has been reached. For a list of recipients see list below:

AIG
GM
Welfare
Social Security
FICA
FUTA
Frisbee Park in Austin, TX
Date night with Michelle & Obama in New York
The White House
Nancy Pelosi’s House
Retirement plans for Congress
Health Care better than I’ve ever had for Congress
Fuel for Air Force One in order to brainwash Americans into buying into Socialism
Pepsid AC for the heartburn I get every single day I hear the President of the United States of America trashing my great country and doing everything in his power and then some to shove something down my throat that I DO NOT WANT! i.e.; a bailout, socialized medicine, electricity monitoring, and well, you get the picture. Oh yeah, and the picture of Air Force One buzzing the Statue of Liberty in New York.

I’m sorry, but don’t these people work for me? Don’t they work for you? Did you approve any of this? I didn’t. We really need to understand that the entitlement mentality is having a trickle-down effect. It’s not money trickling down any longer or the pride to achieve great things, its entitlement. If I achieve great things they are entitled to take it away. It is illegal what they are doing yet here we are.

As a small business owner I see a lot of entitlement mentality on both sides of the fence. Everyone always talks about benefits when they apply to work here. Like they’re entitled…My response is ‘It benefits you to show up to work and do as I tell you to do’.

Fighting the establishment is tough. Oh and speaking of tough fighters; I served in Baghdad, Iraq for almost two years with men and women who fought, and some even lost their lives fighting, for a country that believes in what our fore fathers believed in. Those men and women who have died protecting our freedoms will have died in vain if we lose our country to a man, a government and a sector who would rather see it fall than rise!

And we, the foot soldiers of this great nation are also going to have fight; tea parties are just one way of accomplishing the goal of getting our country back. And believe me, we’ve lost our county. And I want it back! Don’t you want to live by our code; a code of honor and pride. Don’t you want to live in the country that is proud of capitalizing on one’s ideas and hard work; we’ve lost the county that believes in the constitution; and we’ve certainly lost the America that believes in a government that is ’For the people of the people, by the people’.

I want to thank my fellow Bible thumping, flag waving, gun toting, America the Great loving patriots for showing up today. And if that isn’t the America YOU love, don’t Tread On Me-LEAVE!

God bless you all and God bless the United States of America!