From July 29th, 2012
Chick fil A's CEO has come under fire for voicing his support for
"traditional family" as defined in the Christian Bible. Everyone and
his brother has an opinion about his stance, and I am no different.
However...
I'm
not going to tell you what my opinion is. That's not what this is
about. What this is about is support - or not. First of all, I hate
being told what to do. If I get one of "those" emails that tells me an
uplifting story and ends with "if you don't forward this your [sic] an
unfeeling person"...well...you'd better believe I'm NOT going to forward
it! How dare you ruin a wonderful story with a demand at the end which
brands me an "unfeeling" person if I don't do what you want me to.
Really? And, by the way, I may be unfeeling (or not), but you are
grammatically challenged, and I cannot respect you for that. Your
opinion does not count - so
there!
Sorry. I
digressed. My point is that I will not be told what to do or how to
think. That's it. End of story. I will listen to your opinion right
up until the point you make it personal. As soon as you imply that I
had
better agree with you, you've gone and lost me. I may even
have agreed with you, but you'll never know it. I have turned off my
"care" button. If you continue, I will turn off my "more" button,
too...in which case I will
not care so much that I will actually be caring less! Ha-Ha!!
What
does my poor punning have to do with Chick fil A? Simply that I will
not be eating there on August 1st. "Ah-HA!" you will now be shouting
gleefully, "I know what she thinks of Chick fil A's CEO now! She is NOT
going to be eating there so she does NOT support the CEO and his
beliefs! She is definitely on OUR side!" or "She is definitely on
THEIR side!" (Depending on who is shouting.)
Not so
fast, dearies. I said I was not going to tell you my opinion about the
whole matter of whether or not I "side" with the CEO, and I have not.
Nor will I. If you would just settle down and read a little bit more,
you will eventually get to the part where I tell you
why I won't be eating there on the 1st.
The
primary reason I won't be eating there is that I don't like the food.
It's not terrible, but it's not something I go out of my way for,
either. As a matter of fact, I
would have to go out of my way to
go to a Chick fil A. I don't have time for that. As for my second
reason, I'm not stupid. This thing has gotten so far out of hand that I
will not be surprised if there are reports of demonstrators shouting
down the people going into Chick fil A on August 1st. I, for one, want
to stay out of trouble. If I go there and there are demonstrators, I
will not enjoy my time there, nor will I be able to keep my mouth shut.
I will have to give my opinion to the closest person to me. I will not
shout, or make rude gestures, but I
will say something; which
will invite whoever it is to give me an opinion right back. Normally,
this would be considered a good thing; discourse. Not when I want to go
eat and someone is outside trying to make me uncomfortable.
Chick
fil A is a fast food place. If I go there, I am hungry and want to get
a quick bite to eat. I don't want to experience the unpleasantness of
confrontation because of what you are inferring by my presence. (What?
You are not inferring that I am there because I am
hungry?)
Believe me, if I was a regular at a Chick fil A, you would not catch me
there on August 1st. Because I'm pretty sure there will be people there
who want to tell me how terrible I am for wanting to eat there. And, I
really would feel terrible because I would feel compelled to explain
that I
always ate there for lunch. Then, I would be confronted about how I
shouldn't support a business if....blah blah blah. And then, I would get angry, because you
know
that the person has decided that I'm either aligned with the CEO, or
that I'm "part of the problem" because I refuse to be "part of the
answer" - which, of course, is to agree with the person who is
confronting me about my choice of where to eat. And nobody gets away
with telling me what I think.
I don't go to fast food
restaurants expecting to have to defend myself in a debate. I don't
debate. If I want to listen to debates, I will go to a debate. I will
attend a political
spectacle convention. I hate
confrontation of any sort. I don't even listen to talk radio - I
cannot stand to hear people bash one another and call each other names
because they don't happen to agree with each other. I thought that
living in America meant that I could have an opinion that is different
from yours. I thought that meant that if our opinions do not line up,
we were free to either talk about it, or agree to disagree.
Why
am I inventing a demonstration at Chick fil A? That's a good
question. It hasn't happened, yet - August 1st is 3 days away. It may
not happen. I surely hope it does not. I hope that people who want to
eat there on August first - no matter what the reason (hunger, I hope)
will get to eat there unaccosted. I have been around long enough to
know that there is a good chance of it happening, though. So, I won't
go. If I ever go to a Chick fil A again, it will be on another day, at
another time, and because it is
highly convenient, and my friend really wants to go. It won't be because I've been told to go to
show support. I will always do that privately.
And you
still don't know where I stand on this particular issue. That's as it should be.