Denny's, Tulsa, OK

We wandered over to the Denny's near my friend Justin's house for breakfast this morning. While we were there, a black postman came in and sat in a booth near us. A little later, a white couple came in and sat in the booth between him and us. After about five minutes, a waitress came over and took the white couple's order and then left for the kitchen. So, the postman got mad and left, and complained to the manager on his way out. She gave the usual apologies, though she didn't sound overly sincere. After he left, I heard the manager making catty comments about the mad customer to co-workers. Now, didn't Denny's get sued in a national class action lawsuit for racial discrimination about a decade ago? I guess those punitive damages just weren't enough to convince Denny's to stop their patterns of discrimination. This is one of the reasons I oppose all the "tort reform" movements being pushed by doctors and insurance companies all over the country. These "reforms" are capping non-economic damages and especially punitive damages. It all makes no sense to me. We can trust a jury to decide whether or not to kill a criminal, but we can't trust them to fairly assess damage awards for tort victims.

Enough of my soap box.