The LBGT community began in full force to try to convince people to boycott the chain regardless of the fact that the popular chain doesn’t discriminate against gays as employees or patrons. That doesn’t seem to matter in this case. It appears as though they just want to punish someone for his protected free speech point of view. They apparently convinced some in Government to support the boycott. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said “Chic-Fil-A does not represent Chicago values”. I guess Chick-Fil-A needs to have a few murders per day in their stores to meet his standard? Not sure what “Chicago values” are but, right now isn’t the time to make Chicago the standard for values.
For the first time in my life, today I visited a Chick-Fil-A to show my support for the CEO’s right to free speech. Today was billed as “support Chick-Fil-A Day”. I live in LA so, I was not expecting much in way of support but, I was not just surprised, I was blown away. The Chic-Fil-A in Northridge, California had a line that twisted throughout the parking lot. It was almost 100 degrees but, that didn’t seem to deter anyone. They were peaceful and the demographic was wide ranged. Blacks, whites, teenagers, kids, Latino’s and all other categories you could imagine. At this location their there were no anti-Chick-Fil-A protesters.
When I returned home I turned on the news to see how this would be reported. NBC in Los Angeles chose to focus on the protesters. Not the ones supporting Chick-Fil-A but, the ones protesting the supporters. The protesters are a tiny fraction to the supporters yet the media focused 90% of their attention on those few. This does not represent the truth of the actual event.
My favourite was the Boston mayor's comment about how there's no freedom of opinion on the Freedom Mile anymore. Either you tow the politically correct line or you can't have freedom.
ReplyDeleteEvery time someone says something stupid, a debate ensues about whether people are criticizing freedom of speech. But that's a mistake. Freedom of speech is a legal and ethical freedom. But it doesn't mean that everything one says is justified.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor of Chicago (and Boston, IIRC) was within his rights and within the bounds of civil discourse, until he (they) threatened to use the law to bar Chik-Fil-A from opening in their cities. That is what the argument should be about, not whether Chik-Fil-A has some sort of inalienable right to be stupid.
Not that I support Gay Marriage, but why is there reaction so startling to you?
ReplyDeleteWHy should they not boycott a company that delegitimizes their lifestyle and seeks to deny them personal and legal freedoms?
Would we not do the same when it came to companies that sought to deny Torah Jews certain fundamental rights?
you are missing the point. When a mayor of a city or other city employee says that the government will deny permission to do business in that city because of the personal beliefs of the business owner - that is a clear violation of first ammendment rights. However if the mayor - as a private citizen - simply says he strongly disagrees with someone's beliefs then that is also protected speech.
DeleteI have no problem with gays boycotting anybody they chose - whether Jews, Christians or Moslems. Similarly I have no problem with firms owned by gays being boycotted. But when the governmental process is being used to block companies based on protected speech - that is clearly prohibited by the constitution.