Chick-fil-a, Part 2

And people wonder why I am the way that I am.

All this talk of Dan Cathy reminds me of when Princess Margaret of England was in Chicago in the 1970's and remarked that the Irish are pigs. Yes, Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister, called Irish people pigs. Naturally, people all over the US were in an uproar. Well, not that I was alive to see this uproar first hand, but Bill Murray made an awesome comment on it during a "Weekend Update" sketch on Saturday Night Live. It's a classic: 

"Everybody's very upset about it but I say, let her slide on this. I mean, let the woman slide. I know what you're saying, "Bill, you're Irish." I'm a hundred per cent Irish. I'm an American - but the blood is green. ... I say, let her slide. I mean, she was just 'faced, that's all. She was just 'faced. I mean, she hits Chicago, she goes out to dinner with some wild green animals in that town, has a few cocktails and she just gets 'faced, you know. She turns to the Irish mayor of Chicago, Jane Byrne, says the Irish are pigs. Tell me she wasn't too 'faced or nothin'. Not much she wasn't. So let her slide. You know, when somebody gets 'faced, you let 'em slide on that, especially, you know, a girl -- when they get 'faced. And, especially, a member of the royal family, you know?

"Back in England, she's the queen's sister. She can't get weird at all, you know. And, you know, if people don't let you get weird nowadays, you get irreversibly weird, I think. So let her slide! Come on, this is America. Look -- Princess Margaret is a pig. She's a slut, she's a tramp, she's a slime bucket. So what? Right. Exactly. I can say this. She's lettin' me slide. ... You know why? Because this is America. And because I am 'faced. ... I am completely 'faced. I don't know if this is even makin' any sense. Listen, she was 'faced. I am 'faced. So let us both slide on this. God, am I 'faced. ... Jane, are you as 'faced as I am? ... I am completely 'faced."

Sorry I couldn't find the video clip. You can read the full sketch here, including some Roseanne Roseannadanna at the end.


So, in other words, we should let people slide for what they say when they're drunk, right? Riiight. So I'm gonna let Dan Cathy slide for what he said because he was drunk, right? Riiight. Wait, what's that you say? He wasn't drunk? Okay then, in that case, I say screw the man and his fried chicken. I can eat better chicken than that at my mom's kitchen table. And I just did! So I close my words on Dan Cathy with Eddie Murphy's impression of Richard Pryor:  "Tell him I said to have a Coke and a smile and shut the ---- up!"

Bill Murray wants YOU to be a Ghostbuster, not a bigot.

But seriously, the reason this is a problem is because bigotry does not occur alone. Bigotry is equal opportunity. The states that flew Confederate flags and fought for the right to own and whip fellow human beings, the states that enacted Jim Crow laws, are the same states that are fighting most vehemently against the LGBT+ movement. Who else didn't like gay people? Who else didn't like Jewish people and black people? Let me think. Oh yeah, the people in this video:

Did you catch what that duck says at the end of the cartoon, when he hugs the Statue of Liberty? "I'm glad to be a citizen of the United States of America." 


And many people nowadays are attempting to mask their bigotry and hatred with the name of God, the Bible, and tradition. But it is really a mask for ignorance. I am not talking about my friends and other caring religious people. I know that there are so many religious people out there who are struggling with traditional teachings and interpretations but who still want to accept and support their friends and their needs. I know it's not easy to bend the rules, or to learn to look at things from a new perspective, or to be in conflict with what you were taught. I know that from experience. For me, it took a real breakdown and examination of everything I had grown up with. But I have found that it is possible to embrace both the past and the future. It is possible to live within a traditional framework as well as complete your own personal mission in life. And I can testify from personal experience that we are living in a time when, more than ever, it is imperative to breakdown and examine the ideas and traditions we were raised with. It is possible to be faithful to the past and to move forward.

I come from a Catholic background, and I am a first generation American on my mother's side. I grew up with a very close attachment to my Old World grandparents, so close that I have normally always identified more with them and with their traditions than with other Americans. I have studied the Renaissance and the Romantic era as well as the Ancient Greek and Roman eras. I have even lived in Italy for three months. And because our culture is so young, people in this country have almost no idea how old the world really is and how much of the ancient world survives today. It survives in old countries such as Italy, India, and Egypt. The Middle Ages and Enlightenment are also alive today.

All society and civilization is built upon layers, like Constantinople, as is the structure of our psyche. But you also have to define yourself in relation to that psyche, to that civilization, to that system of traditions. You cannot let tradition dictate who you are. Not in the West. You are not living in India and being told to accept and fit the mold into which you were born. You were born in a land with a chance to to define yourself and build your life as you choose. You always carry your tradition and your past with you. But you are another step forward. If you stop and do not take that step forward, your line, your whole family's history, and your own development, stop with you. But if you take that step, you are not leaving behind all tradition. All you have to do is turn around and see the line of the myriad footsteps of your ancestors still in the sand, leading up to where you are now.

Flush that bigotry out with some Colon Blow.