To the editor:

I would like to respond to the June 19 column by Laura Finley (“Courts wrongly favor business over human rights”). If I understand her correctly, she was upset that an employee had been fired from his job for disobeying federal law. And the Colorado Supreme Court had the audacity to uphold federal law!

This is a free country. At least it was established as a free country. That means any employer has the right to hire or fire anyone they choose for any reason they choose. They may have decided to fire an employee because he/she wore flip-flops to work and didn’t have proper foot protection. Yes, it is legal in Colorado to wear flip-flops. It is even legal under federal law to wear flip-flops. However, the employer still has the right to fire that person if they so choose. I do not understand why people think their own “rights” trump everyone else’s “rights.”

I once hired an employee with this condition: He had to change his hairstyle. I, as the employer, felt that his choice of hairstyles was inappropriate for the job I had open. He said to me, “Well, I guess I have to change my hairstyle.” My answer to him was: “No, you don’t. There are plenty of other jobs out there you can get, but if you want to work here, then you have to change your hairstyle.” He had all the requirements of the job and was a hard worker, but his hairstyle did not fit in with my business. Therefore, it was his decision to change his hairstyle, not mine.

It has been in the news for a while now that some businesses are forced to close because they refuse to serve someone who had a different religious belief (or no religious belief) than the business owner has. I contend that business owners should have the “right” to serve whomever they choose without being forced out of business because some crybaby did not get his or her way. Again, we live in a free country. Well, at least it is free for some people!

John Heath

Delaware