Silent Correction

The other day, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook.  I took issue with it.  Because, I am me.

It is what inspired my post yesterday.  I don't pigeon hole him and I hope he doesn't pigeon hole me, because then he will miss most of who I am.  To me Brian is a guy who loves Mercedes, has a wicked sense of humor, loves his dogs and he just happens to be gay, in a partnership with a guy I adore and is good to him. I adored his mother, who used to work with me and consider myself fortunate to have known them both.  If you ask me what comes to mind when I first think of Brian I would say the Mercedes logo.  But is that all he's about?  Ah, hell no.  He's so much more.  I don't even care what his politics are.  I'll be honest, I don't even know what he thinks about guns.  Haven't asked him because I like HIM.  I like Brian.

But it speaks to a thing that many of "Us" refer to as voting with your wallet.  When the Dixie Chicks got stupid during the Bush administration I stopped listening to them and I did not buy one more Dixie Chicks CD.  I wasn't a huge fan to begin with, but I did like them.  I didn't make a huge deal about it, didn't have a CD bonfire in the back yard that I then posted immediately to the intarwebs. I just stopped giving any of my money to them.  I was done. I've done that for many actors. writers, pundits, etc. over the years.  If you come up with something dumb and what I consider harmful to others, I will just stop supporting you in any way whatsoever.  I used to love Matt Damon.  I used to like Ben Affleck.  I will admit, I never like Sean Penn, so that was no loss.  I stopped listening to anything Madonna had to say at Like A Virgin.  I started watching Guy Ritchie again when he divorced her.

There are far more many people like me than are not.  We see something we don't like and we quietly turn away.  There is something good about that.  I think about it more and more as I see all of this furor over Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson.  Many of the A&E sponsors are pulling out of the show.  That is their right. Read the words leaving my fingertips: THAT IS THEIR RIGHT. Just as I decided I would no longer listen to the Chicks, they have every right on this earth to not sponsor a show where someone says something polar opposite to their beliefs.

Except, Cracker Barrel.  Family values and country food.  Remember them?  Except, they don't agree with Phil.  They don't have to.  However it is contradictory to their advertising and mission statement to vilify family and God and all of that, but they chose to do the loud, popular thing.  I've never eaten at Cracker Barrel.  Now I never will.  It's one of those places that I've always meant to visit, but never have.  Their store here is smack in the middle of people exactly like Phil Robertson.  If I were them I'd move to the other side of town where eating at Cracker Barrel is not seen as "fine dining".

A&E is now reaping what they have sown.  They were more than happy to make money hand over fist marketing Duck Dynasty.  I honestly think this is nothing more than a ginned up attempt to make even more money off the brand.

I stopped watching A&E over 10 years ago because of the quality of their programming.  I've never regretted that decision.  Now I never will watch A&E again because they hired a God fearing Christian then act all outraged when he spouts God fearing Christian beliefs.

This is not about free speech.  Not at all.  This is all about what A&E knows is about to happen.  There are not a lot of brie eating, wine swilling folk who watched Duck Dynasty to begin with.  They're too busy watching The Food Channel and ITF.  The folks who watched Duck Dynasty hold the same beliefs as Phil Robertson, which is why the show is so wildly popular.  That is why you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some marketing from the show.  I swear to God I saw a Duck Dynasty back scratcher the other day.  Overexposed.  Commercialized.  And thank God for that.  The thing about the folks who like Duck Dynasty, they are fiercely loyal to a brand.  Just ask the marketing department at Jack Daniels.

This is about a network who gleefully rubbed their hands together when the cute things they said and did made them more money through viewers.  This is about short-sighted morons who get angry when a Christian states his views.  Like no one has ever heard a Christian express their views on homosexuality before.  I don't get it, but boy, do I understand him.  I was never a fan of the show, never even watched one second of it, but I liked their view point.  I was sick of the fact that I wasn't a viewer, wasn't a fan, yet I could not escape them.

This is about the hypocrisy of tolerance of the Liberal left. And this is about people just like me who will be silently walking away from everything they are trying to sell us and taking our money elsewhere to support things we do believe.  This is about the fact that none of them will ever get why we just got up and walked away without making a huge deal about it. As we used to say at Chronicles of George, YAGE.  Yet Another Grand Exit.