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To: longnshort who wrote (64442)	3/14/2007 11:31:30 PM
From: Yulya	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

No matter how you slice it, she went too far By Frank Sennett • Correspondent • MARCH 31, 2006 Inez Cusable makes a mean cheese sandwich. She's handy with Havarti and great with the Gouda. But don't think of asking the Spokane Valley deli worker for a ham on rye or a roast beef hoagie. "Meat is murder," Cusable says firmly. As a committed vegetarian and animal-rights activist, she'll call you a turkey if you order slices of bird with that Swiss. When Mort's Deli owner Mort Adella discovered his new hire would only serve BLTs without the B, he threatened to fire her. But after Cusable explained her refusal to sell meat as an act of religious conscience – and pointed out that her father is a successful employment lawyer – Adella made some accommodations. So now the owner makes sure he's always behind the counter with Cusable during the lunch rush to handle meat orders. But when she runs the small shop solo in the afternoons, she directs customers to a nearby Quizno's if they won't select a veggie sandwich. "She's cost me some walk-in business," Adella admitted recently. "But my regulars know to come when I'm working the counter, and to her credit, Inez has several vegetarian friends who eat here once or twice a week. She's even got me trying her special foccacia with red pepper and mozzarella, and I'm a diehard pastrami fan." Still, Adella and others wonder why Cusable would take a deli gig when she's not willing to serve meat. It's not like she didn't know selling cold cuts would be central to the job. Besides, lots of careers – good ones – don't require catering to carnivores. And isn't there a line past which injecting one's religious principles into the workplace unreasonably infringes on the rights of customers? But Cusable grew up working in her family's restaurant and believes food service is her calling. As for failing to meet the needs of meat eaters, "Americans have a right to exercise their conscience in such morally troubling situations," she contends. "That's a right we get as citizens of the United States." At least one customer disagrees. "That self-righteous woman is putting her own beliefs above my very normal, legitimate, legal needs," fumed Janine Roe after Cusable rejected her request for a chicken-salad croissant. "She made me feel like a bad person for ordering a sandwich," Roe added. "This isn't about her conscience. It's about power, control and forcing her views on others. It made me so angry, I missed lunch." When informed of Roe's complaint earlier this week, Adella delivered a complimentary meat tray to her office – along with a sincere apology. And then he sat down with Cusable and made her an offer she couldn't refuse. In exchange for Cusable giving up the deli job, Adella will underwrite two years of tuition at a local college so she can jump onto a new career track. So on April 1, Inez Cusable will begin studying to become a pharmacist. "It's always been my plan B," she says.