If you're still reading, welcome! I promise no hate will be spewed here. I have no hate to spew.
I find the recent uprising against Chik-Fil-A and its president to be appalling. I have many reasons for this, the first of which is freedom of speech. It's guaranteed to all. This man is a private citizen. He works for a privately held company and as such, is not answerable to stockholders with opinions as varied as snowflakes. Neither he nor his company have ever been accused (that I'm aware of) of discriminating against anyone. To my knowledge, no gays or lesbians have been denied food or asked to leave an establishment. He answered a question that was posed to him. He did not set out to discriminate or hurt anyone, in my belief.
He has the right to his opinion and yes, to even speak his opinion. He has the right to send his dollars to support charities in which he believes. Just as we all have the right to spend our dollars at his restaurants or not. (Personally, I have not supported a charity that, while doing lots of good and positive things, does one thing I am morally against. Thus, I cannot be assured that my dollars might not be used for that one purpose. So I choose to support individual charities with which I am comfortable.) He has the right to vote and no one can legally persecute him for his personal beliefs or votes.
The audacity of city politicians, much less federal ones, threatening to use their power against him without legitimate reason undermines the very freedoms they claim to be defending. No mayor or councilman has the right, power, or authority to discriminate against a company based on a person's belief. Otherwise, wouldn't business licenses be constantly denied or given based on who is in power that year? It's disgraceful! And whether I agree with every business in my region, I do NOT want a politician deciding whether I can spend my money there or not. Let the almighty dollar speak. Guess what, Mr. Mayor? If your citizens agree with you, you won't have to block a permit. They will deny their business to "evil chicken empire." But at least give citizens the right to voice their own opinons, yea or nay.
I know that today, across the nation, people were speaking with their almighty dollars. We drove to a restaurant across the street from Chik-Fil-A today about 6 o'clock. We had a hard time finding parking. People were parking anywhere they could to support CFA. The drive-through line was probably at least half an hour long. There were people wrapped around the building waiting in line in 100+ degree heat! My guess is the inside / outside line was 1.5+ hours. So you see, mayors and councilmen and less-conservative people across the country, not everyone is anti-CFA. Not everyone feels that free speech applies only when popular or convenient. Not everyone has abandoned the traditional marriage value. It turns out, there are still a lot of people who, while they may not be overly vocal on Facebook, support conservative Christian values and / or free speech.
I have lots of people in my life that I love deeply and unconditionally. I do not agree with them on all matters. But I think there's a big difference in loving someone and agreeing with them. I think there's a difference between showing kindness and accepting / approving of every choice made. I know I'm loved by people who disagree with me. That's fine. But please, don't call me ugly names or derogatory terms just because we don't see eye to eye. Because I promise, I have not and will not speak ill of you.
Agreed. At least mostly. I don't share Mr. Cathy's views, but I also don't care what his views are. As you said, it's a private business and he can do what he wants with it within the law. And he has. I think what he has done here is willingly or not, create the best business and marketing strategy EVER, and people fell for it. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least part of his motive wasn't business related. His company cleaned up today. I bet KFC had their worst day ever. Anyway, My thoughts are that if we don't all learn to share this rock soon, we might as well hang it all up.
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