What’s the difference between “Occupy Chick-fil-A” and Occupy Wall Street?
By Tom Quiner
The “Occupy Chick-fil-A” crowd was a dignified one.
How did the Occupy Chick-fil-A event differ from Occupy Wall Street?
Let me count the ways.
Nothing was broken. Nothing was trashed. Public property was respected.
The food court at Jordan Creek Mall was packed with folks with smiling faces. There was no anger on display anywhere. What I saw was love. The folks I talked to exuded warmth and humanity.
I asked the strangers I met what their religious affiliation was. This crowd loves Jesus. I talked to Baptists, evangelical Christians, and Catholics. I’m sure there were more denominations represented than that. Suffice it to say, this was a religious bunch of people.
That’s not to say that the Occupy Wall Street crowd wasn’t religious. But when you disrespect others, when you disrespect public property, when you defecate in public, when you take your clothes off and parade around a naked, one is left with the impression that you’re not very religious.
The Occupy Chick-fil-A event was more like a love-in. It was almost like going to church. I saw a whole group of kids wearing red T shirts that simply said: “Know Jesus.”
If there were police around, I sure didn’t see them. I saw a couple of mall security guys there who looked like they were sixteen years old.
Contrast this with the Occupy Wall Street bunch who confronted police, leading to scores of arrests.
None of the Occupy Chick-fil-A crowd felt a need to throw a brick through a window.
Contrast this with the Occupy Wall Street mob that left one broken store front after another in its wake.
The Occupy Wall Street crowd broke windows of local merchants and destroyed public property.
Love vs. anger.
Respect vs. disregard.
Orderliness vs. mob rule.
What a contrast between conservatives and liberals.
I am proud of the public and dignified statement made by the faithful yesterday. I am gratified that Chick-fil-A COO, Dan Cathy, said they broke their world record for sales in one day.
I was honored to contribute to their success.
I posted several picture shots of the crowd online at Facebook. This started a thread with several postings. One particular person, who shall remain nameless, was hopping mad, accusing us all of hate, bigotry etc. Only one other in the forum made one derogatory comment but this woman couldn’t keep from foaming at the mouth. The replies to her rantings were kind, sincere, loving. She’d have none of it. She has a cause and by golly we’d all receive the slap from her broom and like it. I suggested that if she wanted to be taken seriously that she be less disagreeable because we were tuning her out. Several in the Jesus camp were able to pronounce Jesus’ love for the sinner. However, I made a point of stating that the focus for this event was freedom of speech. It really had nothing to do with whether one regards homosexuality as the new norm or not. Most agreed except Ms. Disagreeable. Go figure!
Doing what is right never has to be justified. Justifying the sin of homosexuality will never resonate with those who follow Christ simply because we Christians strive to abide by God’s rules, not man’s.
Just to play Devil’s Advocate because I honestly never quite understood the “Occupy” movment and wold never dream of representing them:
One is a protest that ran on for ever and ever. The other is having lunch at a resturant to show support after they were attacked in the media.
We can’t run ours forever because we have jobs.
LOL
Yes. I believe that is a big part of why most of them were protesting. They blamed Wall Street for not having jobs.
You say — “If there were police around, I sure didn’t see them”.
Well — There were police at my CFA. They were busy trying to direct the high volume of automobile traffic in and out of CFA.
Oh — And the cost of these policemen was picked up by the restaurant, not the taxpayer.
Thanks for sharing that. Which store were you at (what city)?
This was in Greenville, SC, Woodruff Road store. They had at least two “off-duty” policement there, maybe a third at an entrance/exit that I couldn’t see. Lunch lines extended through the store and well outside both entrances. The manager’s biggest concern when I spoke to him was the possibility of running out of buns. But he would run to a grocery store, if he had to.
To the manager’s credit, and supportive of the class act they are, we discussed/joked-about different ways CFA could build itself up on 8/1, but his position was that they are just grateful to have the extra business, and he didn’t want to do anything at all that seemed presumptuous on the part of CFA. He was even a little concerned about how it would look when the “traffic cops” arrived.
Can you please post where you learned that the restaurant paid for the extra police? I have looked through-out the web and can’t find any references.
I see where a chain in Virginia hired one – but nothing here in Iowa.
Read below from a Quiner’s Diner reader in SC.
For some reason, I thought you were from Iowa City area, illero. My bad.