Long lines of customers along with protestors converged on Chick-fil-A restaurants all across the country today (originally posted on August 2, 2012). The unusual attention was in response to former presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, calling today “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day”. This came after Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A’s president and son of founder Truett Cathy, made comments about traditional marriage and same-sex unions two weeks ago.
I have stated before that I am a huge fan of Chick-fil-A. I believe that they are the absolute best fast-food restaurant for customer service. Their business model and example should be followed by other restaurants and businesses. They also make a pretty good chicken sandwich. This is not a blog post on the merits of gay rights or traditional marriage. Rather it is an essay on how we need to be more civil in our responses to other opinions and beliefs. Too often in our present-day society, people use polarizing speech and go to extremes to push their agenda or make their argument.
So many things seem to be black or white. I guess gray does not exist any more when it comes to beliefs and opinions. Where has civil discourse and the friendly ability to agree to disagree gone? Maybe that is why the perception of Washington DC, the political system and politicians is so bad. If you vote for Romney then you are an elitist and/or racist. If you vote for Obama, then you are a socialist, communist or terrorist. If you vote democratic, you are a bleeding heart, tree hugging liberal that doesn’t believe in hard work. If you vote republican, then you don’t care about those less fortunate, want to bomb and/or invade everyone and drive big SUVs.
In the abortion debate, one side calls themselves “pro-life” implying that the other is pro-death. The other side refers to themselves as “pro-choice” which infers that the other side doesn’t believe in people making choices and thinking for themselves. The political correctness and rhetoric in the current United States concerns me. Not everything needs to be taken to extremes. Every time a white cop shoots a black man does not mean Al Sharpton needs to come to that city. It may or may not be racially motivated. Things do not always have to polarizing.
Which brings us back to Chick-fil-A and Dan Cathy. He believes that homosexuality is against God’s plan. He was asked about it and he stated his opinion. Why has traditional family values all of a sudden become a no-no for people to talk about? Oh, that’s right…because if you are a proponent of traditional family values then you are a bigot or a gay-basher. Really!?! That’s what this world has come to? Why can’t we be in favor of something but not against something else? Or at the very least, why does it have to be turned into a hate issue. It seems that speaking out in favor of traditional marriage labels a person as “gay-bashing”. This is no more ridiculous than saying you are hetero-phobic if you go to a Gay Pride march.
Furthermore, every African-American individual that talks about reparations for slavery does not have to be some angry black man that hates white people and goes around with a chip on his shouler. We must stop going to extremes with our language and discourse. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart, the list goes on and on of media celebrities that fuel this fire. Leave the polarizing speech to game-days for people in the land of SEC football. Roll Tide! War Eagle! Now, there are some people that have hateful things to say about one another. But then again, who were the first people to come to the aid of Tuscaloosa, AL natives after the devastating tornado a year ago? That’s right…the dreaded and evil Auburn fans!