A few days ago, after the President of Chick-Fil-A Dan Cathy announced that he supported marriage as being between a man and a woman, Rahm Emanuel stated that he wanted a ban on Chick-Fil-A in Chicago, Illinois. Although that sounds a bit petty on the part of the Mayor of Chicago, in reality it is very telling. In a press conference, Rahm Emanuel stated, “Chick-Fil-A values are not Chicago values.”
Way to weigh in on the values question, Rahm, but perhaps your target is a little off. I’m sure he is aware that since 2001, there have been over 5000 deaths by gun fire in Chicago ( before you jump on the gun control wagon, remember Chicago already has one of the toughest anti-gun laws in the country). During that same time, in Afghanistan, we lost some 2000 US heroes in a combat zone. The victims in Chicago are due to an increase of 38% in the murder rate in the city for just the first six months of 2012. So far this year, there have been over 300 deaths ruled a homicide in Chicago. This is four times the murder rate of New York City and double that of Los Angeles.
To combat this terrible trend, the city agreed in mid-June to employ an outside company, Ceasefire. Their philosophy on the murder spree is that it’s primarily gang activity and that it is learned behavior. Working with those at risk prior to the violence starting is their goal. Apparently, that’s going to take a while, as there were 27 deaths in July.
About a week ago, Rahm decided to hedge his bets by meeting with Louis Farrakhan to perhaps use the Friends of Islam to curb the violence. Now, I’ve heard some excerpts of speeches by Farrakhan and it seems to me there’s a huge amount of hate contained in those speeches. They appear to me to incite violence as opposed to curbing any violence. That’s just my opinion, however.
So, when Rahm makes the statement, “Chick-Fil-A values are not Chicago values”, I have to wonder. Since Chick-Fil-A is an openly Christian company, employing Christian principles in its operation, maybe what Rahm is actually saying is that Christian values have no place in Chicago as long as he rules. With all that is going wrong in Chicago, with all the deaths there, maybe those Christian values SHOULD have a place in Chicago.
marjarhead1 