Banned in Boston

Chic-fil-A, an up-and-coming restaurant franchise, has been banned in Boston because of its president’s stance opposing gay marriage.

Earlier this month, Chic-fil-A President Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that his company is “guilty as charged” in support of the Biblical definition of marriage and family.  Boston Mayor Thomas N. Menino, in a July 20  letter to Cathy, declared that he would block the chain from opening in Boston.

To Mr. Cathy,

In recent days, you said Chick-fil-A opposes same-sex marriage and said the generation that supports it has an "arrogant attitude.'' 

Now -- incredibly -- your company says you are backing out of the same-sex marriage debate. I urge you to back out of your plans to locate in Boston.

You called supporters of gay marriage "prideful.'' Here in Boston, to borrow your own words, we are "guilty as charged.'' We are indeed full of pride for our support of same sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people. We are proud that our state and our city have led the way for the country on equal marriage rights. 

I was angry to learn on the heels of your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in Boston. There is no place for discrimination on Boston's Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it. When Massachusetts became the first state in the country to recognize equal marriage rights, I personally stood on City Hall Plaza to greet same sex couples coming here to be married. It would be an insult to them and to our city's long history of expanding freedom to have a Chick-fil-A across the street from that spot. 

Sincerely, 

Thomas M. Menino
Mayor, City of Boston

On the heels of Menino’s statement, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, and Obama’s former chief of staff, vowed to block Chic-fil-A from expanding in Chicago.

“Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values,” Emmanuel risibly declared.  “They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values,” Emanuel said Wednesday.

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) is using the same argument to block Chick-fil-A from opening its first free-standing restaurant in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.   Chick-fil-A already has one Chicago store — at 30 E. Chicago near Loyola University’s downtown campus.

Menino talks about the Freedom Trail and Emmanuel espouses “Chicago values.”  The Freedom Trail represents freedom of the American colonies from Britian’s oppressive religious and speech laws.  If you disagreed with the Church of England, you could be declared a heretic and hung.  If you spoke against the Crown, you could be thrown in jail, tortured, and even executed.

Menino is reverting back to the repressive English model by preventing a private business from opening because he doesn’t like what its owner thinks.  Dan Cathy said nothing about banning people from his restaurants; only that he disapproves of gay marriage.  It’s unlikely that one the restaurant’s teenaged clerks would ask for a marriage license before taking someone’s order.

Then there’s Mayor Emmanuel talking about the values of Chicago, and respect for other people’s rights.  Like the respect that the United Neighborhood Organization of Chicago showed for U.S. Senator Charles Percy (R) in October 1984, when he tried to speak on a black radio talk show program?  The mob of 100 – mostly composed of illegal Mexican immigrants – ran the senator into a bathroom in order to prevent him from speaking on the show.   They were punishing him for refusing appear at a UNO forum.  Percy believed that UNO would stack the audience in favor of his Democratic challenger, Paul Simon.

How respectful was Chicago when it renamed a school in a middle-class, Mexican-American neighborhood Ninos Heroes, against the wishes of the majority of the residents?  Using Alinksy-style tactics, UNO singled out a Latino school board member who opposed the renaming of the school, besieging him in his home.  According to Stanley Kurtz in his book, Radical-in-Chief, “The Chicago school board’s Hispanic president later decried UNO’s unruly ‘threatening’ tactics, but the board surrendered anyway.”

It was Rahm Emmanuel who led the attack on Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, filing hundreds of frivolous lawsuits against her, care of the Alaskan taxpayers, until she finally resigned her office as governor of Alaska.  Chicago, to say nothing of the state of Illinois, is rife with corruption and vice.  Obama’s replacement as state senator was sent to jail.  Chicago is infamous for its voter fraud.  Chicago was the capital of crime during prohibition and is the murder capital of the nation.

Chic-fil-A would bring some decency back to the Windy City and restore freedom to Beantown.  Banning the franchise is yet another sign of government overreach and the encroaching socialism that has been gradually infecting our society.

If Chic-fil-A were to reflect Chicago’s values, they’d not only have to acknowledge and accept the socialist worldview of gay marriage, but they’d have to accept orders from dead people, as well.