Posted on 08/03/2012 9:22:00 PM PDT by StAnDeliver
Should someone be fired from their job and threatened with violence, torture, even death because they have an opinion different than yours? Of course not. And yet, that is what Adam M. Smith of Arizona says happened to him.Adam Smith’s life has been turned upside-down in the 36 hours that followed his posting the video of his protest at Chick-fil-A, which involved letting a young, female employee at the drive-thru know what he thinks about the company. (You can watch the video here.)
We had an exclusive conversation with Smith where he shared his side of the story. Here’s a taste of what he said:
•He has lost his job as Chief Financial Officer at Vante. (Smith claims that he was not given a chance to really explain himself before being terminated)
•His family has been threatened with violence and death. (At one point, his email account was getting 3 messages a minute, mostly vulgar and threatening)
•Because his home address was made public, he cannot live in his house. (And Mr. Smith is a married father of four – two of his children are adopted, special needs kids.)
•Smith said that his original intent was to follow guidelines laid out in an online video, which included quoting a scripture.
Before the original Blaze story ran and then again following the news of Adam’s termination, I reached out to him for further comment and clarification. I wanted to see if he wanted to apologize or possibly speak with Rachel, the girl he’s seen berating in the video. There was no comment or reply from Adam until early this morning.
Mr. Smith asked me to watch the video that he claims inspired him to act. It is a YouTube clip from a Christian writer named Jackson Pearce. In the video seen below, Ms. Pearce explains her thoughts on Chick-fil-A and suggests that people go to the restaurant on August 1st and ask for a large water and mention Proverbs 25:21, and if you video your protest, she will post it as a response.
Smith’s initial reasoning for his protest at Chick-fil-A springs from his belief that same-sex marriage is a Human Rights issue and that any laws denying it must be changed. And he chose to protest against the restaurant using the method suggested in the above video.
After he returned home from his now-infamous protest, Smith posted the video as a response to the YouTube video on Ms. Pearce’s page. He claimed that this was the first video he ever posted on YouTube. He later walked that statement back saying that he had only posted a few personal family videos, but nothing of a political or protest nature.
Shortly after his video reply hit YouTube, Smith claims that threats started hitting his email inbox. Threats to his family and to himself. So, he removed the video as quickly as he could, but it had already been saved and was in the process of being re-posted by others. One re-poster is tied to the group Stormfront.org. In fact, before he actually spoke with me on the telephone, at 9:34 this morning, Adam sent an email stating:
read this……"
The link he attached to that email took me to a blog site from someone who identifies themselves as “Florida Squeezed.” The headline of the post read:
Chick-Fil-A Becomes Iconic for Neo-NAZIS & Tea PartyYoung-Adult fiction writer’s idea accidentally leads to Arizona Chick-Fil-A protester being cyber-bullied by “White Power” website based in West Palm Beach, Florida
I was a bit confused by this. Was Smith now claiming that he was the victim of cyber-bullies that he claims are Neo-Nazis? No. He wanted me to see how Stormfront.org had re-posted his initial video and also added his contact information. As the video went viral, the threats and emails increased.
“My inbox was getting 2-3 emails per minute,” he explained via phone. He added later: “I’m not even at my house, you don’t know that. I can’t live in my house right now. I’m in an undisclosed location right now.”
I wondered about his terminations. Did both the biotech manufacturing company (Vante) and the college react without giving a “hearing?”
According to him, “The college has not fired me at this point.”
When asked if there is any chance to appeal his abrupt termination from Vante, Smith said he doesn’t not have legal counsel and thus has “no idea.”
So often in cases like this, a lawyer or law firm will step up and offer to assist, so I wondered if anyone had made such a proposal:
“I don’t think anyone can find me right now. I can’t find the emails through my ***** account because… it took me an hour to find your email, and I knew you did it, I knew you sent it, and it took me an hour.”
Smith started reading off some of the offensive emails he was receiving, telling me how people were referring to him and his family:
“I’m a fa**ot, I’m so glad you got fired, it’s so funny, I hope you’re slitting your wrists, your kids have a horrible example of a father, ya know, all kinds of real tolerant stuff…. Ya know, they have free speech so great… they can do whatever they want… they can do it.”
So given all the fallout, I wanted to know if he cared to see Rachel again. “If you encountered her again, what would you say to her?” I asked.
“I will say to her… what I will say to her… and I will figure out what the right words are,” he responded. And then he shed a little more light, saying that he had already gone back to Chick-fil-A the next morning to talk to Rachel.
She refused to talk to him.
“I wanted to see if she was OK, that’s all,” he explained. “She was actually working there, and her manager went to get her… and she wouldn’t come back.”
Considering the controversy that’s erupted, you can’t really blame her.
By the way, we have repeatedly reached out to his former employer Vante for comment and have not yet received a reply.
Liberalism is a evil cult. He insulted 80% of America and deserves what he gets.
Pray for America
And they always accuse us of taking things out of context. Continual proof of their utter intolerance and hypocrisy on parade, over and over and over again.
We need to only start treating them like Bugs did to Yosemite Sam.
My company’s business conduct code requires us to maintain the same corporate values on and off the job. That is to say that you can be terminated if you embarrass the company. If this jerk’s company had a similar policy they were following the corporate policies that someone at his level should have been well aware.
This reminds me of Nancy "Giant Gavel" Pelosi and the black caucus nasties using the public entrance that they never use in order to march through the Tea Party crowd in hopes of provoking an incident when they voted on the health care bill for the 'made for television president'.
You can drop them a comment here info@vante.com
It's a Dawkinist/new atheist thing. Almost always OT (Old Testament) and OT (off topic).
If you can really school them, though, they get frustrated...select NT passages and Proverbs 31:10 usually cast them out...
This bunch was a little different but too clever for their own good. They wanted to use Proverbs 25:21 going through drive-thrus, at the behest of this squirrely GenY chick JacksonPearce (and Smith couldn't even remember the verse in the drive-thru! And yet he called himself a 'Christian for 25 years up till last year' in another video...read yer Bible much, Adam?); but they all neglected to read ahead -- Proverbs 25:21 was meant for us, not for them:
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,and the Lord will reward you.
I fell for the earlier, teaser article at The Blaze. Returned to find the full report to be a layer cake of nuttiness. All it needs is a dose of chemtrails and 911 truth for it to be worthy of a cross-post at Alex Jones.
Not nutty enough for the author, he had to add the creepy opinion piece at the very end. Reveling in that stalker code phrase, “...check on Rachael.” Made my skin crawl. That article’s last paragraph alone could qualify as evidence to gain a protective order in my home state.
So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. It’s all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness. The article malevolently tries to divert us, IMO.
StAnDeliver, please accept my thanks for your follow-up.
So now he's an unemployed Nazi. Good riddance of another liberal lefty Nazi d@bag.
LOL! OK. :)
A 100% total douchbag, piece of human scum, jerk.
And, as usual, being a stupid, retarded libearl, he doesn’t even “get it” on what the inane “boycott” is about.
Agreed. She did an amazing job not firing back, but her face definately told the tale. She did take it personally - especially towards the end when he got into the "how do you live with yourself" angle.
Sympathy for the guilty is treason to the innocent.
He thinks that someone should not be fired for having an opinion that is different. Yet he was hoping to damage Chik-Fil-A’s business. If asked beforehand I’ll bet he would have wanted to shut down Chik-Fil-A which would mean ALL of its employees would lose their jobs because of the opinion of the CEO which they may or may not share. A bit hypocritical, no?
In addition to the public relations fiasco, I would have fired him for:
1. being an idiot
2. being a bully
3. having terrible judgment
4. being so self-absorbed that he thinks everything is about him.
Seriously, what did he think he was going to accomplish? What was the whole point of making the video. (Hint: Me, me, me.) Did he show the slightest empathy or humanity toward the server? No. Although she looks to be much, much younger than he is, she had remarkable composure and demonstrated grace under pressure.
Not necessarily....she could be afraid of the idiot. Just think of the people that go on a shooting rampage when their stupidity gets them in trouble and they take it out on others. I don’t blame her a bit for not going anywhere near him.
Hey Stal..”So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. It’s all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness.”
I have been saying this all along. This whole thing is a media-orchestrated attack on Christianity. The media twisted an interview, through in some garbage re how the Southern Poverty Law Center says the groups CFA supports have an active squash gay rights agenda then the media and politicians went about painting the CFA owner as some rabid anti-gay monster! It’s insane!
It’s like saying, I have a dog and support the AKC,,,then having the media twist that into saying I hate cats and work with groups who are anti-cat. It’s nuts.
The media has wayyy too much power...and that bunch is scarier than President O
Hey Stal..”So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. It’s all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness.”
I have been saying this all along. This whole thing is a media-orchestrated attack on Christianity. The media twisted an interview, through in some garbage re how the Southern Poverty Law Center says the groups CFA supports have an active squash gay rights agenda then the media and politicians went about painting the CFA owner as some rabid anti-gay monster! It’s insane!
It’s like saying, I have a dog and support the AKC,,,then having the media twist that into saying I hate cats and work with groups who are anti-cat. It’s nuts.
The media has wayyy too much power...and that bunch is scarier than President O
“She’s not over it. He did some damage. What an ass of monumental proportions.”
I would bet she was in tears after he finally dragged his sorry ass off of the place.
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