’Twas the cluck heard ’round the world.
Countless thousands of Americans swarmed Chick-fil-A eateries everywhere Wednesday — standing tall for the First Amendment and sending a particularly pointed message to intolerant politicians like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
That message:
We’re sick and tired of being bullied — forced to adopt speech codes and politically correct policies and practices insisted upon by activist elites and lefty pols.
Quinn — along with Mayors Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Thomas Menino of Boston, Edwin Lee of San Francisco and Vincent Gray of Washington — had launched campaigns to blacklist the chicken chain in their respective cities.
All because they didn’t like the views of its president, Dan Cathy, on homosexual marriage.
They’re for it.
He’s against it.
Off with his head.
But on Wednesday, Americans in astonishingly large numbers showed just what they think of such intolerance — and of the naked abuse of political power to quash dissent from the liberal line.
Galvanized by social media (which the Left once thought it owned), they lined up for blocks all across the country to buy sandwiches at Chick-fil-A restaurants, intending to make their point quietly, politely — while taking care to bag their trash as they left. (Unlike some protestors we could name.)
Chick-fil-A sales set an all-time record.
Take that, Orthodoxy Enforcers!
Doubtless, some came to oppose homosexual marriage — and, again, they were within their rights.
(As will be those who attend today’s promised gay “kiss-ins” at Chick-fil-A restaurants nationally.)
But many of Wednesday’s demonstrators clearly were incensed by the arrogance of Quinn and her cohort.
“We’re here to show support for [Cathy’s] . . .right to say what he wants,” said Eric Arosemowicz, who showed up at the Chick-fil-A in Paramus, NJ. “I took the afternoon off just to support the freedom of religious beliefs and speech,” added Christin De Meo, a home-care nurse.
Even New York civil-liberties lawyer Norman Siegel (who generally haunts precincts of the far-Left) called Quinn out.
“Quinn was pandering,” Siegel said. “Officials can’t use their government office to penalize someone for their personal views. . . . Maybe this will be a lesson for her.”
Has Quinn learned a lesson?
Probably not.
Marinated in self-righteousness and virtually never called out in public on such issues, she likely doesn’t truly understand what she did wrong in the first place.
Well, she’s now on notice.
They all are.
So, for that very reason, God bless Chick-fil-A.
And the tens of thousands who came out for the First Amendment.