Let’s Eat Some Chick-fil-A!
July 31, 2012
Tastes Good...and FEELS Good To Eat At Chick-Fil-A
By Joy Overbeck
(Joy is a talented, national writer and we welcome her sharp perspectives to The Kitchen Cabinet.US)
It’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, and I’ll be at my local Parker restaurant plopping down my cash for a cluck sandwich to support this decent family company.
I hope you will join me. Tens of thousands of us need to stand up against government officials who want to ban their chicken restaurants simply because company president Dan Cathy says he’s in favor of traditional
President Dan Cathy Sticks By His Principles...And Good Food
marriage — that is, marriage between a man and a woman.
Understand the company is not being accused by these officials or anyone else of discrimination against gays in hiring or in refusing them service. We, who believe in marriage the God-endorsed way, aren’t bigots who seethe with hatred against gay people. We actually represent the mainstream in this country who think a wedding cake requires a bride and groom on top.
And for that we and people like Mr. Cathy are demonized, called vicious
Chick-Fil-A Lives By Traditional Values. It's A Free Country...Or IS IT?
names, and now denied the right to do business by politicians who use their power to pick winners and losers based on religious belief. Officials like Boston’s mayor who says Chick-fil-A is not welcome to open restaurants in Bean Town, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who vows to block two restaurants planned for “his city” by proclaiming that this Christian company’s values are “not Chicago’s values.” Which leads to wondering what precisely are “Chicago values”.
When government can decree who it will allow to achieve success, and who it will not, based on whether it agrees with the business owner’s religious views, that government is a regime of tyranny. Has the persecution of Christians really come to this? Are any agnostics and atheists and Muslims who don’t accept the idea of gay marriage also to be called haters, and denied business licenses?
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Says "No" To Chick-Fil-A For Traditional Values
This is despotism, pure and simple. Not only is using government to punish individual business wrong and unlawful, it also persecutes the entrepreneurs who individually own and operate each of the 1600 Chick-fil-A restaurants. I would think these mayors would be interested in increasing employment for the jobless in their towns, but apparently they think it’s more important to shut down freedom of speech. Now there’s even talk of closing down college campus eateries. So college students are the new thought police?
Don’t let them get away with it. Let’s get out there and eat some chicken.
Joy Overbeck blogs at www.mycoloradoview.com.
Follow @TKC_US
Here is a copy of an open letter I sent to Rahm Emanuel
I’d like to get this published somewhere. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Ralph Serpico
480-540-9107
PS. Enjoy Chick-fil-A day!
Ralph J. Serpico
1175 W. Pecos Rd., #1013
Chandler, AZ 85224
Rahm Emanuel Mayor
City of Chicago
121 N LaSalle Street
Chicago City Hall 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Dear Mayor Emanuel,
As a native Chicagoan who grew up on the far west side, graduated from DePaul University and
launched my career in Chicago, I am concerned and confused by your recent comments in
response to the statement made by the CEO of Chick-fil-A supporting traditional marriage. You
said: “The values expressed are not Chicago values.”
I am confused about what are “Chicago values.” Apparently, freedom of expression and
freedom of religion are not “Chicago values”.
Mr. Mayor, don’t you have more important things to focus on?
·
This year alone, as of July 10th there have been 275 murders in Chicago. The murder
rate in Chicago is worse than for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/murder-rate-climbs-chicago-mayor-makes-valuesappeal-
161727694.html
·
Since 2001, more than 5,000 people have been killed by gun fire in Chicago (over twice
the rate of troops killed overseas).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/chicagohomicide-
rate-wor_n_1602692.html
·
Unemployment rate in Chicago is at a staggering 9.3%, over a point higher than the
national average. Unemployment is considerably higher for minorities and youth (also
the victims of higher crime rates).
http://www.areavibes.com/chicago-il/employment/
·
According to Chicago Tonight, “
Nearly 40 percent of Chicago Public School students
drop out.”
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/comment/4823
·
In 2011, the Milken Institute ranked Chicago in the bottom 25 percentile (155th out of
200) in creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth.
http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/
·
Gang violence in Chicago is among the worse in the nation. Young people who can’t find
jobs and who suffer from ineffective or non-existent parenting join gangs and resort to
crime often turning very young children into innocent victims. Violence in Chicago is so
bad the city had to deploy 200 Chicago police officers to secure the perimeter of a recent
wedding reception so the President and First Lady could attend.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/chicago-homicide-rate-wor_n_1602692.html
What’s confusing to me is why you would attack a principle that all reason and logic tell me you
should be supporting. In response to the mounting murder rate and increasing gang violence
you are quoted in The Outlook on July 10, 2012 as saying: “It’s not about crime, it’s about
values… They (gang members) have the wrong values.”
Mr, Emanuel, to be blunt, I would say the same to you.
You
have the wrong values.
Compelling statistical research exists to support the fact that children who come from traditional
families are less likely to drop out of school, join gangs, or engage in criminal behavior than
those who don’t. Why would you verbally attack a company who could offer you solutions to
your moral, economic and jobs crises?
Normally I wouldn’t offer my opinion where it wasn’t solicited. In this case, Mr. Emanuel, since
you did so vis-a-vis your
Chick-fil-A
statement, I am making this exception. Here are three
things I would suggest you do to address the out of control violence, crime, homicide,
unemployment and school drop-out rates in our once great city:
1. Don’t always do the politically expedient or politically correct thing; Do the right thing.
You should be welcoming and encouraging potential employers with every resource at
your disposal. One of the biggest correlations to predict the probability of criminal
behavior especially among youth is whether or not they have a job. How many of the
275 murder victims this year and over 5000 the past decade would be alive today if their
assailant was at work instead of on the street?
2. Stop besmirching successful businesses. You should be embracing employers (and tax
payers) and welcoming them to Chicago, instead of judging them with your misguided
sense of “Chicago values.” To the rest of the country, your statement is almost comical.
In politics, “Chicago values” are synonymous with corruption, incarceration, bribery,
graft, clout, and intimidation. Instead of lauding “Chicago values” why don’t you return
our city to the “American values” of entrepreneurship, hard work and free enterprise?
3. Check your personal beliefs. Mr. Emanuel, given the enormity of your job, you should be
praying to God every day and repeatedly throughout the day to help you protect and
serve the people of our once great metropolis. Instead of demeaning God and his
values, invite Him to join you and guide you every day and on every decision. Find a
minister(s) who believes in America’s principles and seek his/her counsel. Our children
and their future are depending on you.
Mr. Emanuel, I hope that my words to you and my passion for my beloved city are not in vain.
I pray Mr. Emanuel that the good Lord will give you the courage to do the right thing in every
situation, the wisdom to know what that is and the humility to seek and to hear His divine
guidance so that all Chicagoans can experience peace, freedom and the American dream.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Sincerely,
Ralph J. Serpico
Ralph J. Serpico
Footnotes
http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/murder-rate-climbs-chicago-mayor-makes-valuesappeal-
161727694.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/chicago-homicide-rate-wor_n_1602692.html
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/comment/4823
http://www.areavibes.com/chicago-il/employment/
Thank you … to know that you support this company is awesome
The freedom of speech is for all not just a select few.
This is just the beginning of what promises to be a very big fight for freedom at its base level. This fight that Obama and the Rahm Emmanuel’s as well as the Soroses has brought to the table is that they, hate God in my opinion. They war against him in every way possible” They stand for everything he is not! These people war against America and the values that made her strong! They push the limits and test the metal of our core values! They mock our very way of life and bring strife to everything we have known and loved in this one nation under God! We are a tolerant nation ,allowing in religions of all kinds. Until Obama came into our ranks even our liberal leaders respected God and freedom of speech and our sovereignty. We stand on the threshold of all that is decent and good and clean, being ripped without constitutional right from us. We are pressed to be what a very very very few bad men want for us to be in this country We stand or we lose this battle against freedom or a take over of family clean God respecting values as well as Constitutional rights. Either we are a rouge nation, allowing persecution of decent God loving people or we are a nation of backbonless and cowards! I make my stand with Chick Fil A and the rights and freedoms of innocent people!.
I do not believe that any government should have the right to outright ban any business because of the conservative Christian values of its owner. It is irresponsible in this economy to deny potential jobs and an improved tax base to any community. The ONLY clarification I can make with absolute certainty is that two of my daughter’s GAY friends (in high school) were FIRED from a Chick-Fil-A in Concord, NC just for being gay. So, some managers really embrace the CEOs P.O.V. However, if that offends people, DON’T EAT THERE. Its not for the government to decide not to allow a business. Let the people decide for themselves.
Lunch today with daughter and 2 grands …. and hubby …. yum!!
bonus : educational book or ice cream plus balloons!
Chick-fil-A Apparantly, most Americans believe as they do……marriage is between a man and a woman…..special interests need to give it up. Clearly our tolerence has bred intolerence … shutting out freedom of speech, destroying businesses who do not march to the beat of Rahm Emanuel and this administration.