Yay for Chic-Fil-A

I'm going to assume you haven't been living under a rock. If you have, then just Google Chic-Fil-A and you can get up to speed in minutes.

If you are conservative, if you are liberal... gay, straight, man or woman... please take a moment to hear me out. This has nothing to do with horses, tack, or anything else you thought you were going to hear about, but because I have a big mouth and even bigger opinions I'm going to give you an earful and then next week I will be back to normal I promise! In the meantime I do love a captive audience so thanks for being here :-)

I grew up in a politically charged house. My dad is extremely passionate about his politics, and growing up I couldn't care less. Then I married into a family that could give my dad a run for his money in the political opinion department. And..you guessed it... I still couldn't care less.

Now, 14 years later I'm starting to get it. What I'm learning to love about politics is not the politics (I REALLY hate all that boring stuff), it's that every "debate" causes me to question what I believe in. And guess what? I am really passionate about some things, and I'm willing to bet that you are too. I love this great country that we live in, I'm super patriotic and rarely have a dry eye during the playing of the National Anthem at rodeos...even though I've heard it hundreds of times. This is a great country, there is no other country on the planet that can compare, and I want to ensure it stays that way for my daughter and the generations to come.

There has been so much drama lately revolving around Chic-Fil-A, and most recently with yesterday's "Chic-fil-A Appreciation Day". All because it's President, Dan Cathy, publicly stated that they support "traditional marriage" as in, between a man and a woman. He went on to state that "The Chic-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity, and respect- regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation, or gender."

That's it. That's all he said. He stated his company's Christian belief because he lives in a country where we are free to do so. Or so I thought.

And the backlash has been of epic proportions. I'm not concerned about the backlash from people who don't agree with Chic-fil-A's stance. Nor does the picketing, newspaper articles, media storm or anything else bother me. Here's where it all went wrong: Mayors in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco are so outraged that they are attempting to ban Chic-fil-A from opening chains in their cities. Banning them because Chic-fil-A has gone on record stating their beliefs. Our GOVERNMENT has made a pivotal step, crossing a huge line, to use its power to suppress a viewpoint with which it disagrees. To deny a business on the basis of the personal beliefs of its owners. Wow. We are witnessing our government squelching our First Amendment right...the right to free speech.

This is not about chicken sandwiches people.

It's not really even about gay rights.

Our Constitutional rights are being trampled. Our rights as Americans are being diminished and flagrantly disregarded. It's a big freaking deal.

Now I could make my point by quoting conservative radio host Glenn Beck who said today that "The issue has very little to do with gay rights and as regards to same-sex marriage and much more to do with the Left's desire to squash freedom of speech." Or his later statement that "I want freedom. I want liberty. I want the right to choose my own path. I want the right to fail and say stupid things...to think these things...because once you stop thinking or living in a society that says 'you can't think that way', the country fails."

But I wont ;-)

As I think to better illustrate my point let's hear what the liberal ACLU, a huge proponent for gay marriage has to say as they come to the defense of Chic-fil-A: "If a government can exclude a business for being against same-sex marriage, it can also swing the other way and exclude a business for being in support of same-sex marriage."

Or how about N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg who self-proclaims that "Nobody's a bigger supporter of same-sex marriage" then himself, but also goes to the aide of Chic-Fil-A by stating that the banning of their restaurant in cities is "inappropriate" and "I just don't think it's government's business, period." "This is just a bad idea and it's not going to happen in New York City".

And here's Steve Salby, dean of the Schiller College of business and gay man "A society that truly believes in individual freedom will respect Mr. Cathy’s right to his views. Those who disagree with him are free to boycott Chick-fil-A in protest. But if our elected officials run Chick-fil-A out of town, they are effectively voting for all of us, regardless of our respective beliefs, and eliminating our individual freedoms."

The bottom line is this. You have a right to hate Chic-fil-A. You can vote with your pocketbooks and refuse to eat there. But when the government threatens to sanction an otherwise lawful organization based solely on it's disapproval of their beliefs, it truly is bigotry gone wild. And if we as Americans sit by and allow this to happen then we are as worthy of the idiot stick as our government.

So let's grab our pitchforks and lanterns and do something about it!

Just kidding... O.K., I am officially off my soap box here. And for those that made it all the way through that, thanks for your time and I would love to hear how you feel about this...

And as much as I would kill for a Chic-fil-A chicken sandwich right now, the nearest one is 256 miles away so I'm resigned to just dream about one.

Until next time ~ Jess