Posted on 08/01/2012 7:38:36 PM PDT by Yashcheritsiy
As I write this, Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day isn't even over yet, but it is already obvious that the cultural Left in America has been handed an absolutely huge defeat today. For those who have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Chick-Fil-A's President, Dan Cathy (son of founder Truett Cathy), was recently asked by a Baptist publication about his views on traditional marriage and same-sex "marriage." Cathy, whose company is well-known for its support of Christian principles (including closing on Sundays, something almost unheard-of these days), responded by affirming support for traditional marriage and opposing same-sex unions. For this, Cathy and his company have been roundly pilloried in the mainstream media. Radical homosexual activists immediately demanded a boycott of the restaurant chain, as well as announcing a "kiss in" to be held at franchises across the country. Accusations of "hate" and "bigotry" have been flung at the company, and leftist elected officials in a number of cities have gone so far as to announce that they will make every effort to force the restaurant chain out of their cities, or prevent them from starting any restaurants if none already exist (which is, as it turns out, highly illegal).
Clearly, the cultural Marxists in America thought that this would be yet another play from the old gay Mafia playbook — identify an offender who makes the mistake of opposing the radical homosexual agenda, fix them as a target for the hatred of the proles, threaten them with official sanction by the apparatuses of the state controlled by the Left, and watch the offender fold into a quivering apologetic lump of jello who can then be leeched for funding to be given to radical homosexual lobby groups as means of penance for their transgression.
Except that the playbook didn't work this time around.
Instead of backing down, Dan Cathy and Chick-Fil-A stood firm. They didn't apologize and walk back Cathy's comments. Instead, they affirmed their 1st amendment right to say what they want and to hold whatever moral and political positions that they deemed appropriate. And as we have been seeing, the people of this country responded overwhelmingly positively to this company that — unlike so many others that have drawn the ire of the Left on a hot button cultural issue — kept standing on its principles. And to the surprise of many a leftist who haughtily assumes that because they support homosexual "marriage" and hate Chick-Fil-A everyone else must too, a massive campaign of support for Chick-Fil-A sprang up across the internet and on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Americans by the parcel load responded to the call to come out and eat at Chick-Fil-A as a show of support to the company, an event which came to be called the aforementioned Appreciation Day, and which is taking place today, August 1, 2012.
The response to Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day has been absolutely awe-inspiring. A post on Free Republic asked "Freepers" to share their experiences eating at (or trying to eat at, assuming you could even get in because of the crowd) their local restaurants today. I encourage the reader to visit the thread, but I will tell you what to expect — testimony after testimony of massively long lines, tied up traffic, standing room only, and crowds full of polite, well-mannered, friendly people all enjoying the blissful confluence of quality food and the opportunity to support traditional marriage and free speech. Michelle Malkin, likewise, posted up her followers' experiences at Chick-Fil-A today, in which the stories were much the same.
What explains this tremendous outpouring of support for this restaurant chain?
Frankly, this is happening because the majority of the American people are simply sick and tired of having the radical gay agenda forced off onto them. Americans are tired of being flogged as "extremists," "homophobes," "haters," and "bigots" for simply affirming traditional marriage. Americans are tired of being told that they are the dangerous, radical, hate-filled fanatics for simply thinking that marriage should be between a man and a woman by a bunch of spittle-flinging gay activists shoving their rainbow triangles in everyone else's faces and trying to destroy the lives of those who oppose them. Americans are tired of voting against gay "marriage" only to have a homosexual judge strike down the law or constitutional amendment by judicial fiat. Americans are tired of radical homosexual activists whining about how "oppressed" they are while at the same time harassing, giving out the personal information of so as to incite violence against, and threatening citizens with harm who had the audacity to exercise their rights to engage in political action. Americans are tired of left-wing mayors disregarding the 1st amendment and abusing governmental authority for the purposes of punishing businesses and individuals who stand on the opposite side of the aisle from them on this issue. Most of all, perhaps, Americans are tired of standing by and minding their own affairs while the cultural Marxists in this country tear down our institutions and civilization around us.
Eating at Chick-Fil-A today was a way to stick it in the eye of the left-wingers and cultural totalitarians who can't and won't accept that the rest of us simply don't agree with them on this and other cultural issues.
Of course, I'd imagine that the Left is not taking this very well. We know that the national media will do its level best to downplay today's events and try to make them disappear down the memory hole. Unsurprisingly, several of the reports on the Free Republic thread mentioned the presence of media reporters — who were interviewing the two or three pro-same sex "marriage" protestors present at a restaurant, while making a valiant effort to position their cameras at such an angle as to exclude the lines of customers snaking their way out of the store and around the building. While there seems to be some local news coverage, don't expect the national nightly news or CNN to give this day more than a five second blurb right before going to a commercial.
I'm sure that the gay Mafia and its supporters in the broader cultural Left are consoling themselves today with reassurances that all of these people eating at Chick-Fil-A are just morons, or toothless inbred hillbillies, or are just there because they were riled up by their Bible-thumping preachers at their Bible-thumping churches. I'm sure these poor little martyrs are clutching their bosoms and opining about the disturbing level of "hate" that still infests America and that needs to be rooted out.
What they don't understand — what they don't want to understand — is that hate has nothing to do with this. The people eating at Chick-Fil-A today don't hate them. Speaking for myself, I can say that I do not hate homosexuals. I believe their lifestyle choice is immoral and sinful, but I don't hate them. I don't wish them ill or want to see them die or to see harm done to them. I don't lay awake at night thinking about how much I despise homosexuals.
However, I get the distinct impression that there are a lot of people in the radical homosexualist movement who do lay awake at night thinking about how much they hate people like myself, and how much they'd like to harm us and shut us up once and for all.
Nevertheless, what drives the people appreciating Chick-Fil-A today is that we're weary of 1% of the population forcing the rest of us to sit down, shut up, or suffer negative consequences for not doing so. We're shaking off that yoke. By attacking Chick-Fil-A, the gay Mafia has really assaulted the living, beating heart of America. The result has been the exact opposite of what they expected to happen. We can only hope that this aroused giant will stay awake and will remain vigilant from this day forward.
Some history and historical pictures at the source of this FR thread.
Yes, its fairly impressive, but is it anything more than an easy gesture?
We are still being swamped by the Left and its plans - Nanny-statism, political correctness, and massive, intrusive, over-spending Gov’t. Eating chicken one day isn’t going to change that.
Everyone should ask themselves every day - what am I going to do this day to change the path this country is on?
Spot on article that represents everything from my Chick-Fil-A experience this evening.
1) What did you order?
2) How much was it?
3) How was it?
4) What’s your fav fast-food place?
I'm going to postulate that if the lefties keep pushing, the feelings of the people mentioned in the last sentence might change. Not so much hate as a righteous anger and determination. Be careful what you wish for, lefties.
“interviewing the two or three pro-same sex “marriage” protestors ... while making a valiant effort to position their cameras at such an angle as to exclude the lines of customers”
They’re only fooling themselves and looking like fools to the rest of us.
1) The regular Chicken sandwich combo w/ waffle fries and coca cola, they were out of Spicy Chicken.
2) I believe a bit over $6. Equivalent in price to any other fast food lunch/dinner menu combo.
3) Waffle fries were only ok. Chicken sandwich was quite good and even better than I had experienced on my few prior CFA experiences. The Coke though was the biggest surprise given the time at night and how busy the location was all day, it was crisp and bubbly.
4)No particular favorite though I will give a shout out to Steak N Shake.
Darned if this writer hasn’t totally nailed it.
*Big bump*
When dinner time neared, we spoke with friends who also thought of having Chic Fil A but we're wondering about the crowds and the heat (it as reached 102 with heat index of 108), but we convinced them to give it a try and this time headed out to an area West of KC called "The Legends" (next to the KC, KS NASCAR track) but crowds were absolutely astonishing!
Full sun, no shade, 102/105 temps., moms, dads, kids, babies, old folk, teens, guys in overalls, truckers, blacks, orientals, Hispanics.
We arrived shortly after 5:00 p.m., got our food around 7:50 and left about 8:15.
As people were waiting to order, management might announce they were almost out of say, waffle fries or chicken salad, people would say, "give me what you have the most of," or some who had waited more than an hour asked for a shake or lemonade.
No one got angry, in fact, when orders were ready and employees were calling out names, guests would help and loudly announce, "Nancy" or some such and as the customer made their way up front to get his or her order, the crowd would cheer and applaud!
How about that for "hate," Menino or Rahm?
It certainly wasn't YOUR Chicago Way!
No surprises. No crowd shots but full coverage of four "gay couples" prancing around near the street level discussing "hate & discrimination" and "one couple" kissing for the cameras.
They did show one lady who said this was about free speech but that she also supported the owner of CFA.
What a sham of a so-called story, but the good news today is that hundreds to thousands across the KC Metro area experienced the truth, they didn't need to rely on the media to report it.
I’d send this to my lib sister but her head would explode.
But...but it just happened.
"WE" are everywhere across this great land.
Very, very, very well-written. Thanks.
“They’re only fooling themselves and looking like fools to the rest of us.”
They know the masses oppose them, as the ballot box has indicated EVERWHERE it was voted on. They’ll simply do end runs to get their way.
FWIW, this doesn’t bode well for Obama or the Dems; it is just another wildly unpopular position they have taken, and there will be fallout.
The man in line behind me in Monroe, NC, around 4:00 p.m. realized that he’d gotten in the shortest line, while others had been waiting longer, so he waved half a dozen people to go ahead. One lady said, “This is the kind of people who come to CFA,” and her friend asked, “Are you married?”
"CFA Mingles Night."
“be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up”
So, maybe the “image” isn’t “golden”, but perhaps a shade of brown...
Not a bad idea ... at least women could probably safely assume the men were not homosexual.
I know how Chick-fil-A is doing (great) now I’d like to know how JC Penny is doing...
Watch for fun and joy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m90FsST_1p4&feature=youtu.be
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