Weighing in on Chick-fil-A

Okay, here I am, having to weigh in on the Chick-fil-A issue.

Only because ALL of you extremist, on both sides of the issue, are MAKING me weigh in.

I have my own personal opinions on marriage, gay marriage and what it means to me personally.

I am not going to expound on it. It is just that. MY - OWN - PERSONAL - OPINION.

I will talk to family about it. I will talk to friends about it. But I am not going to make a public display either way.

However, all of the morons out there who just HAVE TO MAKE THIS A PUBLIC ISSUE are ignoring one very basic principle of America.

FREEDOM.

Unlike many other nations around this spinning globe we all call home, in America we have freedoms. Freedoms secured by the wisdom of our founders and the courage of those who voluntarily have defended over the CENTURIES. Freedoms founded in faith and secured by blood.

Two of those very basic freedoms are being ignored by everyone speaking out on the Chick-fil-A issue.

Freedom of religion. This is one of the most misunderstood and maligned of all our freedoms in America today. Instead of being in a country where if you are not a follower of a specific religion you are either shunned or dead. we live in America where it is ILLEGAL for the government to force religion on us. But this also means that our public figures and government workers should also be allowed to express their religion. The whole separation of church and state rhetoric today has been turned upside down and destroyed by those who hate and/or fear religion. They say you cannot have a menorah or a nativity scene on your desk. You can't say have a blessed day or Merry Christmas in a government building. This is a denial of the basic freedom we are supposed to be afforded. Everyone is supposed to be afforded. Private citizen or government worker alike.

The falsehoods being spread about this freedom is at the heart of the problem today in the Chick-fil-A stupidity.

The owner of this fast food restaurant has a belief. According to his beliefs, gay marriage is wrong. He has never made a secret of how much he feels about his faith. Sunday is the Sabbath and thus very important to him personally. So his restaurants are closed on Sunday. Now, with gay rights in general and gay marriage in specific being polarized by politicians trying to pander to specific groups to get elected / re-elected, this owner has come out and stated his personal objections to gay marriage.

So what?! It is his right to feel this way and adhere to his beliefs. Although I may not agree with his public rendering of a private choice, I applaud him for sticking to his faith. So many will abandon the beliefs on the altar of public opinion just to make a buck or gain public approval. This guy didn't.

And if you disagree, that is also your right. If you want to not frequent his restaurant. Fine. Again, this is your right. You have the freedom and choice to decide where you want to eat and what businesses you want to patronize.

The problem comes from those who want to publicly demonize this man. People who want to characterize a whole faith and lambast them because HE DOESN'T THINK LIKE THEM.

But lets remember a few other things about this man. He gives to all kinds of charities. Always has. He offers his employees benefits not normally found in the fast food industry. he always has. He helps his employees with educational choices. He always has. Aren't you glad that he "doesn't think like" lots of other businesses out there? If anyone else was a philanthropic as this man you would be praising them. But because of this man's faith, you crucify him. You demean him. You demand he change.

But what if someone said they didn't like the way YOU think? What if they demonized you for the way you raise you children, give to your church or charitable organization? What if you were told you were a hateful person because you wanted to send you child to a good school instead of a public school? What if you wanted to move out of your crime infested neighborhood to a nice neighborhood and were lambasted publicly as a racist, a bigot, an evil person?

How would YOU feel?

And then there is the freedom of free speech. If you want him to just SHUT UP about what he feels is wrong, you are guilty of stifling his free speech. What if you wanted to protect your children from a child molester living in your neighborhood? And you spoke out about the evils of people who molest children? What if you demanded that convicted molesters be registered and you be notified of if they move in near your home or school. You feel it is your right to speak out, yes? But what if someone told you to JUST SHUT UP? Wouldn't you feel your rights were being denied? So why is it okay to try and keep another American from exercising their free speech?

Finally, all the politicians who are speaking out so vehemently against this man and his beliefs. They don't care about you. They don't care about your feelings on this. They are simply pandering to get your vote. If you don't think so, you are being foolish. They said nothing over the years about this man not allowing his restaurants to be open on Sunday. Even though many people complained because they wanted their fast food on Sunday. They didn't complain about who he donated money to in the past. Lots of them actually got money from him in the past, so fo course they wouldn't complain. But now that it is a hot button topic, now that so many are crying out HATRED, they are jumping on the bandwagon. Think they would do this if it were NOT a national election year?

Again, if you think they would, you know nothing about our current crop of politicians. On both sides of the so called aisle. They are all interested in keeping their jobs.

So don't patronize his establishment if you like. That is your choice.

Keep up this public rant in the media, from our politicians, from the whole social media outcry. Then look in the mirror and tell me who is hating. Decide to "destroy this man's business" because he doesn't think like you and then tell me who is the hater.

And just wait. Some day you will be on the other end of this argument. It may just be something you say that doesn't jibe with all the extremist out there. And YOU will be on the receiving end of cries of HATRED and RACISM and EXTREMISM. It will be YOU who they go after and try to "destroy." THEN . . . then, tell me who is the haters.

As I said, I am not going to voice my opinion on the issue. That is between me, my conscience and my family and friends. I am more concerned with the whole "bandwagon" thing and how you are being used by those who want to further their own agenda. You can agree with me or disagree with me, but just take a moment and think about what all I just said. Think about what all everyone else is saying. Then look inside yourself to see how YOU really feel on the subject. So long as I have gotten you to actually examine YOUR thoughts on this, then I have done my job and it doesn't matter either way how you decide. Because, hey, this is just me, Thinking Out Loud.

Have a great day.

Charles

Goodbye, sis, we love you

As I go through life and get older, I am running into a stage that more often than I like begs a question. A question that has plagued religion and philosophers throughout time.

When we lose someone we love, no matter their age, we far too often are sad, bitter and angry. If we believe in God we ask "why?" If we don't believe in God, we ask "why?" The latter because even those who don't believe in God still WANT to believe that there is somewhere or something after this life for their loved ones.

Philosophers ponder the question of life and existence and ask the why do we exist and then perish. What is the sense, they wonder, to a life so short. Religion offers the simplistic response, saying that it was their time or that god just wanted them home. There was a movie or something, I can't recall at the moment, where someone had said of their child's death that God had wanted another angel. And the lead actress asked if God was so all powerful why not just make another angel, why did He have to take the child.

But in our grief and loss and pain, we miss the real fact. We are asking the wrong questions, making the wrong assumptions.

Instead of asking why our loved one had to leave us too soon, we should be asking why we got to spend the time with them we did. We so focus on not having enough time that we fail to enjoy the time we have.

Death is the great equalizer of all arguments, all disagreements, all petty problems.

What importance can we place on a squabble about how someone disapproves of our lifestyle, or how someone got the family bible over someone else or who has the most money or best spouse or nicest kids or whatever? When in the end, death will claim us all. Death will not equivocate on whether we had enough time to get over our small differences. Death will not care that you missed out on getting back together or whether one side or the other apologized first or how long it takes to get over feeling sorry for ourselves.

Death is death and it waits for no one, man or woman. Death comes at a time and place of its choosing, whether we are ready or not.

When it is time for someone to die, then it is time.

While you are griping over that "borrowed" recipe or hurt feelings or imagined wrong or jealous anger or whatever, time is ticking away, moving inexorably to the final end we all must face. Death. The end of existence in this corporeal form. Regardless if you believe in the after life, in whatever form, or you believe that once you're dust you're dust and nothing more, it is the same for those still living. The end. No more.

So I urge you to remember this fact as you swear you will never talk to so and so again because they yelled at your pregnant wife or snubbed your significant other's kids or talked down to you or whatever you feel is deserving of not speaking with them again, even for the time it takes you to get over it or one of you to apologize. Death comes. And we only have so much time with those we love, those we share this world with, those who are just as human as we. And if we only change the questions we will ask at the end, we will change the way we spend our time in the now.

SPend the time you have with those around you, because there is NEVER enough time. And all those lost moments are just that, lost. You can never get them back.

I am not even going to ask if you disagree or not. I am not going to say that it doesn't matter to me because I am just Thinking Out Loud. I am going to simply ask that you think about this. That you look around you and see if there is someone you have lost moments with. And decide to not lose any more.

Have a great day. Goodnight and goodbye, sis, we love you.

Charles

To Stand Against Hypocrisy

A blogger colleague wrote about this and I just had to share and add my two cents. Read this and then continue.

Lori brought attention to the video of Veena Malik showing grace and intelligence in the face of the narrow minded and "pick and choose" ideology that has become Islam. I was so blown away by the power and conviction of Ms Malik. And I feared for her life as well. My oldest daughter was shocked when I told her about the video because she said that women like that are usually stoned to death in these backward countries. And I agree that her life has become a target of these hypocrites in cleric's robes.

So long ago, these lands held to a higher standard of intellect and understanding. From the Middle East came great leaps in philosophy and math and science. The culture of these lands was revered around the world. Their savvy trade and artistry was renowned.

But today, due to fanatical adherence to a redacted version of their faith, they have become feared and hated. Their core beliefs that terrorism is good (the whole 72 virgins lie told to illiterate and hopeless people) and that women are subservient, that they are not worthy of respect and equality, has been a warping of their founding laws. They have been perverted by greedy and insane for power leaders that have them ignoring not only their origins, but their culture and the truth in their faith.

Now I am not in any way saying that there is not ignorance and hypocrisy in other countries or other faiths, far from it. But the hypocrisy in Islam has so much farther reaching consequences where it leads to shopping malls being blown up and office buildings being leveled and school buses being targeted and two thirds of their own populations being held as less than worthy, needs a proverbial kick in the "arse" as Lori so eloquently put it.

Agree, disagree, it makes no difference. But so long as I have educated you in another way of thinking, so long as I have gotten you out of the habit of taken what others (including myself) say as gospel and start thinking for yourselves, I will have accomplished my objective. As for me, it makes no matter, since I am, as always, just Thinking Out Loud.

Have a great day.