(Editor's Notes by Christina Myer - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

I’ve written before about the appalling and often disappointing trend over the past several years of people not only feeling comfortable publicly expressing their nastier beliefs, but believing they will be supported — applauded, even — for doing so.

I suspect social media has a lot to do with it, but “political” trends appear also to have played a role.

Increasingly, those who put words to their hateful, outdated and exclusionary belief systems ARE being applauded, and that is truly a shame. But not in every case. Sometimes enough is enough. And in those cases, people often are shocked, SHOCKED, that there are consequences for their words or actions.

Take the recent case of a woman dining at Cazuelas Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Columbus. According to the head of marketing for the restaurant, the woman was upset over the establishment’s one-coupon-per-table policy. Maybe the wait-time at rush hour contributed as well.

“It was a normal Sunday; things got a little busy, so the wait could have been a little longer than usual, but we aren’t really sure what made her write that,” Fabio Oribio told the Columbus Dispatch.

By “that,” he means the “zero” tip and “I hope Trump deports you!!!” at the bottom of her receipt.

Before anyone gets started, the restaurant has confirmed the waiter at which this woman directed her ire is a natural-born U.S. citizen; but he does have Latino roots and his first name is Ricardo. That makes it easy to take guesses about either a) what this woman believed about the man or b) what she believes will happen to ANYONE who looks like he does or has a name like his.

Perhaps such easy assumptions are unfair. So rather than focus on her motives, let’s focus on what the woman should have understood would happen next. The restaurant, after checking the security video to be sure she had written the note herself, posted a photo of the note on the receipt.

Rather than applause, the act received condemnation — and sent droves of people to the restaurant in question to support it and the waiter.

The woman who is allegedly the author of the note then took to social media to announce her credit card had been stolen. However, after looking into the matter, the realty company for which she worked fired her. It posted on social media that it “does not condone acts of discrimination and is taking this situation seriously. We have looked into it and the agent in question is no longer associated with the brand.”

I say it all the time, but “freedom of speech” simply means the government cannot interfere with, retaliate against or punish you for MOST speech. It does not mean, for example, a private media outlet MUST print what is sent to them. It also does not mean freedom from the consequences of your speech, or freedom from others forming opinions about you because of your speech.

But let’s just give this woman the benefit of the doubt and say she understands that. Is it possible she really believed there would be no consequences or condemnation for what she wrote? Does she believe there are enough like-minded people surrounding her to support and maybe even defend her if there was?

We know she’s not alone, of course. But are the rest of us making it clear enough to the few like her that such behavior will not be tolerated?

Her note screams that we are not. And that, too, is a shame.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com