Looking Down the Barrel of the Same Gun

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.  

–James Madison

Have you heard the story about the waitress who told a gay couple to leave the restaurant and not come back? Driven by a need to further embarrass herself, she then zapped the guys with a gay slur. I am sure that all of this was said with the love of Jesus in her heart. Not. Anyway, once the word got out, gays took to Google and Yelp reviews seeking to make Big Earl’s Bait House and Country Store there in Pittsburg, East Texas, the most recommended gay bar in the state!

The food is whatever but the scene is simply TO-DIE.

This place is great…you can really get your freak flag flying here.

I’m a dude. I like dudes. And I appreciate a place where dudes can hang out together in dude-company.

It’s been days since I read this story but I still laugh, every time I think about it. “You don’t want ‘my kind’? Ok. Let’s see how you handle this.” No picketing of Big Earl’s but a kind of reverse Bait and switch. (Get it? Big Earl’s BAIT House… never mind.)

Of course, today there are an increasing number of people who are saying that, once you have decided that my product is exactly what you want, that I have to sell to you and, if I refuse to do so, the State must force me.

Really?

Then I say what is justice for the buyer is justice for the seller. If you say the State can force me at the point of a gun to sell my product to you then you should have no problem with being forced to buy my product looking down the barrel of the same gun. Goose: meet Gander.

When the State tells a business owner whom he must sell to, it is nothing short of stealing his labor and merchandise because they are being forcibly taken from him. However boneheaded, foolish, or uncharitable I believe the seller’s decision is regarding his choice of customers, I will not call for the State to wield its power and deny this person’s constitutional right to the Freedom of Association. If his customers disapprove of his choices, they can cast their votes against him by no longer patronizing his business and even take to thumping his ears on Yelp. However, once we allow the State to dictate whom the owner associates with and sells his products to, we have accepted a loss of freedom that opens the door for even more egregious losses for us all.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2014