When a Diner Turns into a Pulpit of Hate

By Benjamin Cross

When you walk into a small-town diner in Vermont, you expect a hot cup of coffee, a plate of eggs, and maybe a friendly chat about the weather. What you don’t expect is for the business to be run by someone who openly wishes death upon her neighbors.

That’s exactly what’s happening at The Hartland Diner, owned by Nicole Bartner, right here in Windsor County. Instead of building community, Bartner has turned her diner’s Facebook page into a platform for rage, insults, and hostility. The evidence is right there in her own posts (see screenshots).

One post calls Republicans “filthy Rebs” who should “die screaming in a fire.” Another celebrates the death of Charlie Kirk and spins it into bizarre conspiracy theories. Others sneer at Christians, mocking scripture and praying that white evangelicals would vanish by sundown so “the rest of us can eat our pie in peace.”

This isn’t just “politics mixed with breakfast.” This is hate speech with hash browns.

The Line Bartner Crossed

Some will shrug and say, “It’s her page, she can say what she wants.” True — free speech covers a lot of ground, even the ugly parts. But let’s not confuse free speech with decent speech. When a local business owner uses her public platform to call for people to burn alive or disappear, it’s not just tasteless — it’s dangerous.

Free speech means you can speak without government punishment. It doesn’t mean the community has to stay silent while a business owner publicly dehumanizes her neighbors.

This Isn’t Vermont

Vermont is small. Hartland is smaller. We know our neighbors. We look out for one another. We’ve always prided ourselves on civility, even when we disagree.

Disagreement is healthy. Debate is necessary. But open calls for violence? Mocking the faith of half the town? That’s not Vermont. That’s not community. That’s bitterness, weaponized.

When a diner stops serving food and starts serving verbal venom, it ceases to be a place of welcome. It becomes something else entirely — a pulpit of hate dressed up as a breakfast joint.

A Choice for the Community

So here’s the question: Do you want your dollars funding this kind of rhetoric? Every cup of coffee sold is fuel for a business that mocks, demeans, and divides. Every time the community shrugs, it gives permission. And permission is how this kind of ugliness spreads.

Hartland deserves better. Vermont deserves better. A diner should bring people together, not cheer for their destruction.

The truth is simple: we don’t strengthen our state or our country by standing silent when local businesses preach hate. We strengthen it by saying, loud and clear: “No thanks — not here, not now, not ever.”

🔥 Final word: Hartland, Vermont doesn’t need a hate-pulpit disguised as a diner. And the fact that Nicole Bartner has chosen to make her business a megaphone for hate means the community has every right to push back. Don’t feed it with your silence — or your wallet.

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