Part of me is bothered by the mere fact I even bring this up but maybe if I just throw it out there I can move on to important things. This fiasco with Chick-Fil-A is getting ridiculous. I see both sides of the argument, but using a fast food chain to wage a war against two unrelated things just doesn’t make sense to me. It does make me sad, though. Humanity is capable of many amazing things (including compassion) and yet many squander that on buying fast-food sandwiches and servicing selfish desires over truly improving things in the World.
I get it. The CEO of Chick-Fil-A can say whatever he likes. I don’t agree with it but it is his opinion and it doesn’t matter. Even if it did, Chick-Fil-A does some good things and contributes to charitable causes. The restaurant also has no voting power over the issue of gay marriage so, if anyone, folks should be angry at the CEO, not the company. Corporations are NOT people – by treating them as such, we validate that very wrong (yet somehow lawful) claim.
I get it. Everyone wants to be happy and having the right to marry someone you love is something I agree with. Who someone chooses to love and be with is just none of my damn business. And it should not be the business of Government either. This conversation should be revolving around Religious institutions dictating marriage. At most the Government could recognize civil unions and that’s it. Everything else is between a couple’s religion, or at least higher power, and that’s that.
What bothers me, deeply, about this is that folks are taking a stance on 1st amendment rights – and I agree with that! But that goes both ways. Just because your opinion is more important to you than the other guy doesn’t influence who has more rights to express it. So if the Christian stampede upon Chick-Fil-A is really meant to be about free-speech, then go for it. If it’s about Gay-Marriage, then shame on anyone who went there under such a cause.
There are many better causes in the World that have more value, as a Christian or otherwise, than going to a fast-food restaurant and buying a sandwich. But to exercise your right to buy a sandwich because you believe Gay Marriage is wrong. It just makes me sad – folks having an opinion that basically protects their own happiness at the expense of another. It’s their right to have such an opinion and be free to express it. I certainly agree with that. I just don’t agree with the opinion and that is my right too.
In some ways, this is a microcosm of the problem with US politics. The political stage is both divided and vicious. Officials spend more time calling each other out than recognizing differences and working on compromise. This thing with Chick-Fil-A is a very similar thing. Can’t we, as a People, have a proper debate about issues without having to picket everything someone has a diverging opinion? That is a poor example to set for Congress and doing this seems to validate that fact that sensationalism is ok and accepted in Society. In my opinion (which I am entitled to), it isn’t. And the damage that can be doing to our Country is far bigger than a divided agreement on gay-marriage.
At the end of the day, I don’t agree with the CEO’s opinion. But it’s his. I have mine. I will still go to Chick-Fil-A for delicious sandwiches, but will do so without turning it into a circus. If you ask my opinion, I’ll give it. If I have the option, I’ll vote on it. And, to be fair, there are companies I do not give my patronage to (Wal-Mart being one) and have reasons to do so. You vote with your wallet, as should be the case in a free market economy. But I’m going to do it without making it fanfare.
You mean without fanfare like a 7 paragraph blog post talking about it? :p
That aside, I don’t see how you can reconcile these two sentences: “It just makes me sad – folks having an opinion that basically protects their own happiness at the expense of another” and “I will still go to Chick-Fil-A for delicious sandwiches”.
The latter is literally saying “I will give money to a guy who uses his money to work against gay rights because I want a chicken sandwich”. If that doesn’t directly contradict the former, I don’t know what does.
Hah whoa I just realized the CSS is busted on the comments box. *fixes it* I must have struck a vein if you commented in spite of not being able to see your comment text :)
You’re reading between the lines of my statement. I go to Chick-Fil-A to have a fast-food sandwich. That’s all. I’m not there to make a statement other than to pay money and have a generally unhealthy fast-food experience. In believe in marriage as being defined by a couple, their beliefs and optionally their Religion of choice. I happen to believe folks should marry the one they love regardless of gender, but ultimately that is a Religious issue. It should not be a political one. At best, the Government should recognize civil unions and at worst abolish the benefits of marriage or civil unions entirely.
That said, I’m not going to protest the CEO’s stance, nor am I going to celebrate it. I’m just going to go eat an unhealthy chicken sandwich. I just don’t subscribe to businesses being involved in politics. The whole “corporations are people” thing comes to mind and I find that to be extremely concerning. The actions of folks on both sides are, in a way, validating that by assuming a corporation should be able to vote on the rights of the People. I don’t believe it should, and as a result, the whole point is moot in my opinion.
Chick-Fil-A is well beyond one person (the CEO) and employes tons of people. Waging a rights war using it just makes no sense to me. People are free to do it, mind you, but it has me shaking my head. For sure, I am very sad to think that so many folks go buy a sandwich to make a statement that they do not agree with same-sex marriage. It’s certainly their right, but it doesn’t deserve the sort of exposure it has gained. Nor does boycotting a fast-food chain either, in my opinion. In all this, the backlash has caused yet another mockery of the United States on the world stage. I’m not going to blame activists of same-sex marriage for that mockery. At the same time, while I am on the side of those activists I have to say this issue deserves a better battleground than a fast food chain.
I type everything out first in notepad as a habit, since I’ve accidentally submitted too many half-finished posts to other places(or hit a back button and lost the post), so I while notice it, it wasn’t until everything was already written. It did hit a vein, though, I will grant you that.
My point is this: When you know what a corporation does with the money you spend there, patronizing that business is tacitly supporting what that organization does with their money. If you know that the owner of Organization X spends his money on torturing kittens and you still buy from them, then you are knowingly, if indirectly, supporting kitten torture. You monster.
This isn’t even really a case of ‘business in politics’. It’s a case of a guy who owns a business and who also uses his money to work against gay rights. When you buy a deliciously unhealthy chicken sandwich from him, you are giving him money to spend. This means that the vote you’re sending with your wallet is “Chicken sandwiches are more important than gay rights.”
The purpose of the boycott(and the publicity behind it) is to let people know what the money they spend at Chick-Fil-A is spent on. They think that if you support same-sex marriage, you should know that spending money at Chick-Fil-A helps fund people who work against it because that should make you think twice about spending money there because every sandwich you buy from them is a small but tangible contribution to people who work against it. I’ve got to say that I agree with them.
Sure, I’ll agree with you on that. You vote with your wallet, after all. That’s why I don’t buy games from EA, or go to Wal-Mart (zombie apocalypse notwithstanding – Wal-Mart is the first place I would go in the event of that).
The concern I have with this situation, though, is that it makes me worried corporations might start using this as a tool to influence people to buy their products. Though it’s a shame, a majority of the US still seems to reject same-sex marriage. It reminds me of a quote from Men In Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.” And I could easily see companies raking in dough by becoming outspoken on majority opinions.
The difference with me eating at Chick-Fil-A and not buying games from EA (boy that’s going to hurt bad when SimCity comes out…*sigh*) is that EA has direct influence. Chick-Fil-A’s CEO might be against gay marriage, but it’s not like he is coming into same-sex couples bedrooms with a bible. And the company still donates a ton of money to generally good things (from what I have read). His view on marriage is one I question but compared to the other charities they donate to – I just don’t think it’s worth it.
With EA, if I don’t buy their games, I don’t have a problem. Same-sex marriage is a much more complicated issue and is not going to be won or lost by Chick-Fil-A. I also don’t see folks’ opinion that have influence ultimately over this issue as being swayed one way or another by Chick-Fil-A.