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.