On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article about the Modern Times Café, the Minneapolis restaurant that eliminated prices for meals to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The cafe has apparently protested itself right out of business.
The article reports:
Owner Dylan Alverson attempted to eliminate prices and operate as a “free and donation-based business” where everyone would be welcome “except ICE,” announced he will be closing the eatery for good by the end of the year.
“For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist,” Alverson wrote on social media earlier this week. “I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is.”
He continued, “Because of this, we have made the choice to close at the end of the year. This has been an incredibly difficult decision and one that did not come lightly.”
“I announce this decision now,” he also said. “With the hope that we can spend the next two plus months celebrating the nearly 16 years that Modern Times has stood for creativity over cost, kindness over profit, and uncompromising values as a business in this country.”
In January, Alverson launched an Instagram Post condemning the immigration crackdown in the city, which he labeled an “occupation,” and abandoned traditional pricing in response to the deaths of deaths of protestors Renee Good and Alex Pretti in shootings by immigration officers who claimed they put them in harm’s way.
“Effective tomorrow we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city,” he wrote. “We refuse to generate taxes under the guise of a functioning for-profit capitalist business aligned with government strategy.”
Well, wait a minute, what do taxes do? They pay for paved roads, infrastructure that supplies electricity and plumbing, law and order (which you don’t seem to support), etc.
I would like to contrast the closing of this cafe with the fact that Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen (which has three sites in New Jersey) has been successfully functioning for 15 years. First of all, Jon Bon Jovi has enough sense to keep his politics out of his restaurant. He has also started a foundation that supports his restaurants. That is the difference between a political yahoo and someone who genuinely wants to make a difference.