Why has fried chicken become political?
All week, we’ve been bombarded across social and regular media sites about Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s recent comments about gay marriage and he and his company’s opposition to said issue.
Since those statements, calls for bans and protests for the Southern chicken chain have come swiftly from the left, with cries of support and undying devotion coming from the right.
Boston mayor Thomas Menino has said he hopes to ban the eatery from opening locations in his city until they change their minds on the issue of marriage equality.
Facebook events for “Same Sex Kiss day at Chick-fil-A” and “One Man, One Woman – Let’s Support Chick-fil-A Day” have popped up, with activists promising to blanket local locations and let their voices be heard.
Even the Muppets have weighed in on this hot-button issue, severing their ties with Chick-fil-A and donating any profits from the company to gay rights causes.
The fine people at Nabisco caused a similar brouhaha a few weeks ago when they released online an image of a rainbow-colored Oreo in support of Gay Pride Week and equal rights efforts. The company experienced similar backlash/praise from various factions in this particular fight, getting over 20,000 comments on Facebook.
While I’ve always believed it’s important to stay informed and have opinions on the major political and social issues of our time, I feel forced to take a step back from this situation and try to view it from a different sort of seeing space.
At the end of the day, I’m forced to come to this conclusion – it’s just food.
The views and opinions of a company’s owners and employees on various political issues could be, I suppose, a factor in whether or not they get your business, but I worry we begin our way down a slippery slope if we start to let those opinions vary our purchasing decisions.
If you’re going to ban Chick-fil-A for their “intolerance” or Nabisco for their “permissiveness,” you better go ahead and make a chart with every major American restaurant chain and company and figure out where you can and can’t eat.
If you like the gays, you may have to stop going by Wal-Mart for your groceries and other sundries – the company has long supported “traditional family values.” You may want to avoid Lowe’s, too.
If you’re a militant traditional marriage enthusiast, you’ll have to avoid shopping at JC Penney and Best Buy.
You’ll also get the treat of explaining to your children why we can’t see Pixar’s latest flick “Brave,” because the company has always been known to support gay rights. Ditto any other Disney film, for that matter.
If you limit your purchasing to only the companies whose views align with your own, you may find that your new world will consist of few places you can shop and enjoy.
While you may not love a business’s stance, the idea of banning or shunning said business seems to be unnecessary and more than a bit silly.
To be honest, while I fully support marriage equality efforts personally, I won’t let my stance on the issues affect where and when I shop.
I love Chick-fil-A. You can’t taste the intolerance, try though you might.
Take a step back, breathe and let’s all think before we make rash decisions like this.
We live in a country that’s already too divided and fractured on almost every major issue.
Rigorous, unchecked partisanship is now the norm.
Please, I beg you, don’t add business bans and protest lunches to that insanity.
My poor stomach just can’t take it.
