More on Chick-fil-A

Warren Gibson Liberty, , , , , , ,

Here’s a commentator in the New York Times who echoes my views on the Chick-fil-A matter, and in a more gracious manner:

… a society that truly believes in individual freedom will respect Mr. Cathy’s right to his views. Those who disagree with him are free to boycott Chick-fil-A in protest. But if our elected officials run Chick-fil-A out of town, they are effectively voting for all of us, regardless of our respective beliefs, and eliminating our individual freedoms.

The writer is Steve Salbu, dean of the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  And he happens to be a gay man.  Here is the link.  Not sure if it’s gated.

One thought on “More on Chick-fil-A”

  1. Excellent thoughts! James Peron of the Huff Po has an excellent take on this as well, and one that falls in line with Dr. Gibson’s previous musings here at the consortium. Peron writes:

    A tiny handful of politicians went too far, however, threatening to use regulatory powers of local government to deny business, or zoning permits to the restaurant, in order to punish the owners, Don Cathy and his family, for their anti-gay views. [See Dr. Gibson’s previous post defending liberty on this topic]

    Such a move would be highly unconstitutional and a blatant assault on the First Amendment. If conservatives denied permits to businesses owned by individuals vocal in their support of marriage equality, there would be an outcry. So it was with this case.

    Almost immediately, mainstream liberals started criticizing these threats. Conservatives, however, tended to look the other way and noticed only the minority position of these publicity-seeking office holders. Santorum huffed that the controversy shows “the absolute intolerance of the Left in America. There can be no dissent from what their position is.”

    This comes from a man who wants government censorship of erotica, the Internet and video games — for a start. Over at the neo-con publication Commentary, Bethany Mandel claimed that liberal tolerance “only extends to those who agree with their worldview.”

    If the Chick-fil-A case shows anything, it shows that the liberal mainstream quickly and soundly condemned those politicians who would misuse regulatory powers to punish speech.

    The American Civil Liberties Union — a favorite target of conservatives — came out fighting. Adam Schwartz, senior attorney for the Illinois ACLU said “government cannot… punish someone for their words.” He noted that Alderman Joe Moreno is “practicing viewpoint discrimination” when he “refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a viewpoint that the government disagrees with.”

    I recommend reading Peron’s whole article here. (h/t Sharon Presley)

    One good thing that has come out of this, in my opinion, is that I see property rights and free speech as still having a solid foundation here in the United States. I won’t be eating at Chick-fil-A anymore, but I’m not going to condemn or threaten anyone if they do.

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Please keep it civil