Hooray Chick-Fil-A !
August 1, 2012 has been declared the pseudo-Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A stores nationwide as proposed by Former Gov. Mike Huckabee. The recent controversy surrounding the company’s CEO Dan Cathy’s statements in support of the traditional family structure has me thinking. The issue at hand here is deeper than gay-marriage.
In the United States of America, we as citizens, are protected from laws that “prohibit …; or abridge the freedom of speech”. Dan Cathy is a private citizen and a businessman. Now there are no laws being erected to punish his speech, but the attacks against him and Chick-Fil-A are wholly one-sided. The burden is on Dan Cathy and Chick-Fil-A to prove they are not bigoted. Why?
Dan Cathy made a statement about his person beliefs and opinions on his personal relationship, rooted in Biblical tradition. He did not extend his statement that he is against gay-marriage, but that is the attitude of some. The perception is skewed towards those supportive of traditional marriage as being intolerant and those supportive of gay-marriage as being inclusive and tolerant. This could not be further from the truth. I do not want to hone in on gay-marriage for this post; an issue it is easy to dive deep on. For this post I will dive deep on the implicit nature of group think that is prolific in today’s discourse.
“All for one and One for all” as the Three Musketeers slogan states. We live and die by the voice or comment of one individual in this country. The premise is that when one individual makes a statement they speak for every like-minded being; i.e. Christians, Blacks, Hispanics, Women, Men, etc. Why would you want to make such a gross naive accusation? What motive do you have? What objective are you trying to achieve? My observations have concluded it is to divide n’ conquer. Try and pit individual against individual by casting blame and condemnation without recourse. Paint a picture of an entire group as something the whole group never could be. Groups by nature are a collection of individuals and individuals by nature are unique to each other. Only blind acceptance would allow an individual to accept a blanket accusation about a group they full don’t understand. It is easier and it is rooted in a lack of understanding of the individual and their place in society. Of course we allow ourselves to be cast into groups to feel included. Do we enter into “groups” as individuals with our own opinions that agree mostly with the “group” or do we enter ready to be impressed upon and molded to be in lock-step with the “group” and participate in “group think”? I view this concept as a fundamental shift away from a self-evident truth of this country’s founding.
I take great pride in this country and I have great reverence for which it was founded. America has risen to great power under the momentum of a free people pursuing their individual interests, not from government collective planning. There are people in this country in who believe the USA did not become great until they embraced the collective notion, our current President is one of those individuals. For long there has been movements to chip away at the foundational pillars of this country, to destroy it from the inside so-to-speak. I see the recent attack on Chick-Fil-A as an example of this type of behavior. One just needs to be mindful of jumping on the bandwagon; you never know if the “hate” machine of many in progressive-linked groups will turn their attention towards you or something you hold dear.
So in light of that, go eat at Chick-Fil-A today to support a private business and protect the liberties we all hold dear.
-MLP
Dean Jones
Michael L Pochek
Nathan Henry
I would add that for us to be consistent, just as we may boycott another company (like certain news outlets), we can’t in turn condemn private citizens for boycotting Chick-fil-A, as it is their individual right to do so. The real problem begins when idiological government officials decide to use their authority to descriminate against businesses based on their leaderships’ personal beliefs as the Boston Mayor recently has:
http://consumerist.com/2012/07/heres-the-letter-where-boston-mayor-tells-chick-fil-a-to-stay-the-cluck-out-of-his-town.html
Such actions by a government official far over step the explicit powers given to our government and serve as a great reminder why we need blogs like this where people are challenged to think for themselves, and maintain a healthy suspicion of government motives.