I’m sure many of you have already read about this on Boing Boing yesterday, but in case you haven’t, West Marin Witch the Rev. Joey Talley (who can apparently help you with your alien and shark problems) made the news after being booted from a local farmers market.
“After spending the past six summers giving free tarot readings beneath the redwood trees of Bolinas Park, the Rev. Joey Talley, the “Good Witch of West Marin,” has come to think of herself as a part of the Fairfax Farmers Market. Managers at the Marin Farmers Market see things differently. The organization, which operates eight farmers markets throughout the Bay Area, says Talley has never applied to work as a vendor or entertainer at the Wednesday night market, and they’ve asked her to leave.”
Kicked out! Boo! Hiss! But before we switch our outrage meters into overdrive, we might want to read a bit further.
“Talley agrees that she’s never sought an application, and admits that she “snuck around behind her back” after Spilger asked her to leave the market last year. But Talley believes she’s providing a free public service and has been gathering signatures on a petition asking that she be allowed to stick around. “I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.” While Bolinas Park belongs to the town, the Marin Farmers Market has the right to use the park every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., and to decide which vendors can participate…While they appreciate Talley’s unique talents, Marin Farmers Market representatives insist she take part in the same application process as every other vendor at the Fairfax market. It’s that process, Spilger said, that lets customers know what they see at the market is what they’ll get.”
In other words, they kicked her out for flouting the application process and sneaking around after being asked to leave. Rev. Joey seems to think that her free services to local teens are so important that the rules should not apply to her.
“I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.”
Of course Talley could simply offer free services to teens at her office, or those tarot-desperate teens could attend one of her many sessions at local coffee houses, but that might not drum up new paying customers the way glomming onto the farmers market does. Sorry Joey, if you break the rules and get caught you pay the price. If you behave dishonorably in your business dealings (like lying and sneaking around), you can’t then imply that you were wronged and circulate a petition as though you were a cause worth fighting for. This isn’t religious discrimination, and it isn’t something to get outraged about.
