The President and the Deadly Dinner Forks

Mack Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

The President and the Deadly Dinner Forks

Last week the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials met at Florida’s Disney World (the National Association of Canadian Elected and Appointed Officials perhaps had to settle for Dollywood).

The President spoke at a dinner for the group, but before he could safely do so, Raquel Regalado, an official of the NALEO, required the Elected and Appointed Officials to give up their forks – they were never trusted with knives from the beginning -- because of the danger of such instruments to the Leader of the Free World.

There is no word whether the Elected and Appointed Officials were later strip-searched for unauthorized teaspoons.

Ms. (no doubt) Regalado said to the Elected and Appointed Officials: “As you know, we’re having another speaker and there is some Secret Service involved. So there’s a reason why there’s (sic) no knives at your table and the forks will be collected…“So, like the good Hispanic mother I’m here to tell you to please, eat your lunch.”

With that, Ms. Regalado and the Secret Service promoted layers of stereotypes: according to them, folks who have some Spanish ancestors are not to be trusted with the safety of the President or even with ordinary dining-room tableware.

Given reported recent behaviors, shouldn’t the Secret Service have been disforked instead?  Has NALEO busted heads in bar-fights in Martha’s Vineyard?  Did a NALEO official refuse to pay a, um, fun date in Colombia? 

And imagine the President speaking at a Knights of Columbus dinner.  Grand Knight Feeney comes out and says “Sure, faith ‘n’ begorrah, and because yer Irish we can’t be trustin’ ye, sure, so we’ll be givin’ ye mashed potatoes and ye’ll eat ‘em with ye bare hands, sure, so ye won’t be hurtin’ our darlin’ president.”

Or at the Churchill Club: “Eh, wot, chaps, righty-o, then, just sit quietly while the staff remove all sharp objects.  We who had an English ancestor centuries ago are marvelously malevolent, and the Secret Service fear we might fling cutlery, crumpets, and Shakespearean bon mots at the august personage of our elected President, rather, don’cha’know.” 

No, the President and the Secret Service doesn’t require that forks be confiscated from other loyal Americans, so why was a Latino organization singled out?

Ms. Regalado referred to herself as a “good Hispanic mother.”  Would a good mother of any cultural heritage permit a guest to bring his bully-boys to dinner and humiliate her children?

This incident, reported by The New York Times and others, is disturbing in its narrative of the fear, distrust, and hubris of the Secret Service, if not the President.  But even more disturbing is the passive acceptance of such arrogance: Ms. Regalado, a leader of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, instead of refusing the slight, submitted to it and required the audience to surrender their dinner forks.  And if even one courageous member of NALEO refused to be patronized by such goon-squad behavior, and quietly left the room with human dignity intact, there is no record of it.

The Huffington Post reports that the audience applauded and cheered for the President – the President who fears and distrusts them.

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