A Day With Omar

Everyone who works at the Capitol knows who the most valuable employee on the square is. It\’s not the governor, and it\’s not the attorney general. It\’s not even the speaker of the Assembly or the Senate majority leader. The true cognoscenti know that Omar from Quizno\’s is the most indespensable worker in downtown Madison.

Any square worker can immediately identify Omar\’s mellifluous \”for you?\” accompanied by his machine gun recitation of your possible toppings. Only the most veteran sandwich orderers can get their full order in to Omar without him asking you a follow-up question. The denouement occurs when he smiles and gives you his money line:

\”For herrrrre….

…or to go?\”

Honestly, if you took Omar and stuck him in a legislative office, he\’d be the best constituent service guy in the Capitol. If you took a bipartisan poll of Capitol workers, he\’d be the only political figure to get a 100% approval rating. He knows how to treat the customers, which was evident today.

Omar and the rest of the staff at the Capitol square Quizno\’s are all Latino. There\’s nary a gringo in the bunch. All of them are good workers, at least looking in from the outside. And as I was in Quizno\’s today, you could look out the window and see the big \”Day Without Latinos\” rally on the Capitol steps 100 yards away. Must have been interesting for those folks to be at work watching the festivities. Did they feel awkward by not being at the rally? Did they all choose to come to work because they had to, or because they wanted to?

In any event, rather than saying something negative about the protesters, I wanted to thank the staff from Quizno\’s for showing up for work today. Omar was there, happy as always, ready to deliver me the savory stack of processed lunch meat I so richly deserve. And good for him.