Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Business BS

I am sick and tired of hearing people say that because Mitt Romney (or any other politician for that matter) has business experience, they are somehow qualified for public office.  Having business experience really has nothing to do with working for the government.

Businesses in general have one main goal: to make a profit.  And that's a perfectly fine goal.  I'm not saying that businesses shouldn't make a profit.  However, I am saying that the government shouldn't be making a profit.  The main goal of the government should be to look out for the general welfare of its citizens.  Paving roads, running schools, managing Medicare, providing food assistance: none of these things are supposed to be done for a profit.  They are done for the betterment of society as a whole.  If anything, an Executive Director of a non-profit corporation would make a better candidate for office than a business owner.

This seems to be the fundamental thing that Republicans just don't get.  Our country is not a business.  It should not be run like a business, and our citizens are not customers.  Our government, in essence, is us.  It's not some scary outside entity coming to get you.  It is, in fact, meant to be a force for good and a means for us to take care of each other and the things that we all need to use.

Like healthcare for example.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Chick-Fil-A

Here in Minnesota, we don't have any Chick-Fil-A restaurants that I know of, so this whole Chick-Fil-A controversy doesn't affect me much.  In case you've been living in a cave and haven't heard about the brouhaha, the owner of Chick-Fil-A did some radio show somewhere in which he professed his disdain of marriage equality.

So now you've got the LGBT community and their allies (like me) boycotting Chick-Fil-A, and religious fundamentalists gorging themselves on chicken sandwiches to support them.

One thing that is kind of bothering me about the marriage equality community's response to this whole thing is the planned "Same Sex Kiss Day" at Chick-Fil-A restaurants around the country that will be held tomorrow.  It seems to me that showing up en masse at Chick-Fil-A's to make out with someone of the same sex only advances the stereotype that gay people are only concerned with sex all the time, and with shoving their "lifestyle" in people's faces. 

What's wrong with a good-ole-fashioned boycott or basic protest?  Or maybe organize an event to go and eat at some alternative chicken restaurant whose owner has some more progressive values? (Not sure which restaurant that would be, but there's got to be one somewhere.) 

I'm just a little concerned about the photos that will pop up from this event, and how they will be perceived by all the bigots out there who already have pre-conceived notions of how gay people "are."  I think the only way to change people's minds is to show them that there really isn't much of a difference between them and someone who they think is different, and most people I know have no interest in making out at a chicken joint.

I know it's not my job to change people's minds, and that we shouldn't kowtow to people who are just ignorant, but overall this could really just give some more ammo to the "being gay is all about sex" crowd.  Maybe I'm wrong about this, and I'd be interested to hear what my LGBT friends would have to say about it.  I just don't see much good coming about due to the event, and I see the potential for a massive backfire.