Chicago turns chicken sandwich into thought crime

John Kass:

With Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel making a national issue out of a simple chicken sandwich, I just had to try one for myself.

So I visited a Chick-fil-A for lunch, though I don’t mind telling you I sure was worried. Even biting into a chicken sandwich these days could be considered a thought crime.

But it turned out there are a few Americans plucky enough to eat chicken sandwiches in public. The drive-thru line at the Chick-fil-A in Lombard was clotted with cars, and the parking lot was absolutely jammed. Inside, it was so crowded that strangers sat with strangers to eat their scrumptious sandwiches.

....

The lemonade sure was tasty. The sandwich was tasty, too, and the restaurant was spotless. It didn’t even smell like chicken.

But you could smell something burning miles away at Chicago’s City Hall: Fried Constitution.

If you’ve followed along this far, you know this isn’t really about chicken.

“This isn’t even about Chick-fil-A or any one issue that we can differ on or not differ on,” said Luke McGinn, who was having lunch with colleagues. “We’re talking about whether Americans can speak their minds without politicians using government to shut them up.”

He wasn’t alone. Everyone I stopped told me the same thing.

The Chick-fil-A controversy started with a revelation by company President Dan Cathy, a Christian who is viewed as subversive in some quarters because he closes the restaurants on Sundays. In response to an interviewer’s question, Cathy said he supports the idea that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman, not two men or two women. As a supporter of the traditional family, he pleaded “guilty as charged.”

“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

“We intend to stay the course,” he said, conceding that the stance “might not be popular with everyone.”

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The Chicago pols are hypocrites who have no problem with inviting Louis Farrakhan  to help them fight an epidemic of street crime even thous Farrakhan is an anti-Semite who loudly opposes gay marriage.  But the city's first Jewish mayor needs his help politically and on the mean streets so he is welcome, but Christians selling chicken sandwiches are an altogether different thing.