Saturday, July 21, 2012

Lowlights & Highlights: July 21, 2012

Clearly the worst thing to happen this week was the shooting in Colorado, and I don't need to tell anyone how tragic this is. As someone who lived in Blacksburg, Virginia on April 16, 2007, I know what this community is going through and they have my condolences and prayers.

Compounding the tragedy is that it has brought out the lunatic fringe elements of society. Case in point: Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas said that this happened because of an attack on Judeo-Christianity here in America. He went on to question why the people in the theatre (where the shooting took place) didn't have any guns, almost like he's blaming them for being sitting ducks. I have no idea how this man's thought process (assuming he actually has one) works, but his opinion would have been far better kept to himself since it does more harm than good.

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While I certainly would not expect or even really ask people to boycott Chick-Fil-A in light of the fact that they have given millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations spreading falsehoods and misinformation about the LGBT community, I find it heartening that many people are voluntarily boycotting this business. Some of these people are quite high-profile. As I have mentioned earlier in the week, actor Ed Helms (The Hangover) and Boston mayor Thomas Menino (pictured) have both publicly voiced their feelings on this issue.

Chick-fil-A has every right in the world (or at least this country) to give money to whatever organization they wish. However, we the people have every right to make sure our dollars are not the ones that they give to proliferate hate, bigotry, and outright lies. Freedom is a two-way road folks.

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