Adam Smith's Sorry, So Sorry

As you may already know Adam Smith, now infamous for his rant against a young woman working at a Chick-fil-a, has lost his job as the Chief Financial Officer at Vante.  

While this may appear harsh for an act done during on his own time, I will try to explain why I can understand why Vante felt they needed to let him go.

As you know, I am a teacher.  This means I am a teacher not just during my work day but 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  What I mean to say is that my behavior off the clock could endanger my ability to keep my job.

Let's say for example, I decided to attend a "Smoke In" to protest the fact that pot is illegal.  I don't smoke anything at the event but let's say that I decide to give an interview to a television reporter explaining my viewpoint. 

Perhaps I come across as being articulate, certainly not stoned, I don't smoke pot but I'm supporting people who do.  After all I have a right to freedom of speech don't I?

The next day students see me in the hall and give me high fives and fist bumps for supporting their views.  As a matter of fact the principal calls me into his office, but you can bet it's not to tell me about how well he thought I comported myself during the interview.  Our school supports zero tolerance and therefore my advocacy would place my job in jeopardy. 

So you say, "But Adam Smith was not a teacher so he can say what he wants."  True enough, Mr. Smith does not risk his job if he were to become pregnant outside of marriage like a teacher would but he WAS a corporate executive. 

People look differently upon the janitor and the Vice President of a company.  When questions arise about a company and its product the media speaks to those in management not the janitor.  If the janitor has a few too many drinks over the weekend and gets a DUI that story may make the local police blotter and/or the "Busted" rag sheet. If the head of Apple or Pepsico does the same thing it's all over the news.  The company's stock may be affected if the perception is that the company is being run by someone who doesn't know you shouldn't drink and drive.

Adam Smith was a Chief Financial Office of a company.  One would expect him to have good judgement.  He did not display good judgement in going on a rant against a young girl at Chick-fil-a.  He should have addressed his concerns about Chick-fil-a to those at the top not some girl working her way through college at a fast food restaurant.

Mr. Smith claims that he originally intended to order a cup of water as a form of protest and if he was denied the water he was supposed to share Proverbs 25:21 to emphasize that Chick-fil-a was NOT operating under Biblical values. 

By the way  Proverbs 25:21says:

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

On its face this was ludicrous inasmuch as there are NO charges leveled against Chick-fil-a refusing to serve people because of their sexual orientation.  NO ONE has been denied water because of their political beliefs. So his intent on schooling the people at Chick-fil-a falls flat. 

Rachael is NOT collateral damage ….she is a person! No matter what your position in the corporate world, CIVIL behavior would dictate that you treat others with common courtesy.

Not only has Mr. Adam Smith lost his job as Chief Financial Officer at Vante. (Smith claims that he was not given a chance to really explain himself before being terminated) but he is also the target of death threats.

Adam Smith says that because his home address was made public, he cannot live in his house due to the threats of violence and death against his family.  Certainly such incidents are NOT acceptable and do NOT demonstrative of What Would Jesus Do.

We have all made dumb mistakes. He is apologizing, and forgiveness is exactly what Christ asks of us. It doesn't matter what you think he DESERVES, Christ forgives him.

Mr. Adam Smith's Epic Fail At Chick-Fil-A

We have an update on our FAVORITE angry liberal who berated Chick-FIl-A employee on video.  It appears that Mr. Adam Smith has been slapped down by the Invisible Hand.

His "FREE Water" at Chick-fil-a yesterday may well have been the most expensive cup of water Adam Smith will ever have as he has lost his job.  You would think that the Chief Financial Officer of a multi billion dollar corporation would know better than video his disrespectful exchange with a young woman making minimum wage.  She is OBVIOUSLY NOT a person in a position to make company policy. 

Now let's take a look at how Adam Smith has damaged his career in a spectacular fashion.

Vante of Tucson, AZ Regrets Actions of Former CFO

Employee Has Left the Company TUCSON, AZ--(Marketwire - Aug 2, 2012) - The following is a statement from Vante:

Vante regrets the unfortunate events that transpired yesterday in Tucson between our former CFO/Treasurer Adam Smith and an employee at Chick-fil-A. Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company.

The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner. Vante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions. We respect the right of our employees and all Americans to hold and express their personal opinions, however, we also expect our company officers to behave in a manner commensurate with their position and in a respectful fashion that conveys these values of civility with others.

We hope that the general population does not hold Mr. Smith's actions against Vante and its employees.

Roger Vogel, Chairman, President and CEO of Vante, said the decision for Smith to step down was mutual. Vogel said he was “shocked” by the video, which he first discovered when people emailed him a link.

“We obviously found it very disturbing,” Vogel said. “We respect everybody’s ability to share their opinions in the public square and we have a very diverse workforce with a diverse set of opinions. We expect employees to behave in a professional manner that’s commensurate with their positions, and discuss their opinions in a civil fashion. ... We thought what he did was inappropriate.”
Vogel said the company has no stance on the gay marriage issue but has always hade a “good relationship” with Chick-fil-A. He said the company will consider contacting the employee Smith ambushed in an attempt to mend fences.

The University of Arizona also released a statement regarding Mr. Smith.

Adam Smith held an appointment as an Adjunct Lecturer, Finance (non-tenure eligible) in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona from January 2, 2012, to May 20, 2012. He presently holds no appointment with the University.

The University of Arizona strives to provide an environment where a free and respectful exchange of ideas is valued and encouraged. We strive to have a workforce that is diverse and respectful of different viewpoints and where opinions are respected.

The fact that Mr. Smith no longer has a job is most unfortunate especially in this economy.  It certainly won't help his chances of getting a new job when employers google his name only to see how his behavior may well reflect their corporate bottom line. 

He may not have cared about his professional persona but he DID care about whether or not this young lady thought HE might be GAY.  ”I’m a nice guy, by the way … totally heterosexual," he continues. "Not a gay in me, I just can’t stand the hate.”

Really?  Why did you mention that Adam? Do you HATE homosexuals Adam?  Were you concerned other might see the video and think you were gay?  Something wrong with being gay? 

One more thing, our friend Adam also deleted his Linked-in account but failed to realize that it is cached.  Turns out he's an Investment Banker so I'm wondering how that will go over with liberals looking to help him in his career search.

Chick-fil-A Day Sets A World Record - And The Media Ignores The Story

Chick-fil-A says it set a sales record yesterday when supporters rallied around the fast-food chain amid a debate over its president's opposition to same-sex marriage. The chain hasn't released the sales numbers, but "we can confirm reports that it was a record-setting day," said Steve Robinson, Chick-fil-A's executive vice president of marketing.

Normally, with this crowd volume you would expect short tempers and bedlam. That’s not the case today at Chick-fil-A's across the country.

There were some exceptions.  The day was marred for some who planned vist the Chick-fil-A on Foxcroft Avenue in Martinsburg.  That's because police and fire crews had to close down the Chick-fil-A for nearly three hours following a bomb threat that was called in just before 1 PM.

The caller mentioned that a “device” had been placed within the restaurant. The building was evacuated, but was deemed safe at about 3:45 p.m. after no bomb or any other type of device was discovered.

Martinsburg City Police and the Martinsburg Fire Department personnel investigated the scene, along with Berkeley County Sheriff Kenny Lemaster. A National Park Ranger with a canine unit arrived at the scene at approximately 2:45 p.m. to assist, and a second from the West Virginia State Police arrived later as well.

According to a release from police, the location of the call was traced and the investigation is following up on leads about the male caller.

In another incident, one protestor was arrested in Greenville, South Carolina after police said he tried stop traffic with his car.

Officers said Jeffrey Martell, 30, blocked cars in the drive-thru lane at the Chick-fil-A on Laurens Road. Police said Martell told them his actions were in protest to Chick-fil-A's stance on marriage.

Martell was arrested and charged with trespassing and nuisance conduct.

 

We also have an example of how some on the left decided to deal with the unabashed success of the event.

First let's take a look at this brave individual who has since closed his account on YouTube.  Adam M. Smith decided to harrass a young woman working the drive thru that yesterday. Please note that the young lady was classy and professional. Also of interest to note was that Adam wanted to be sure you knew HE was not gay. Why is that Adam? Something WRONG with being gay?

Mr. Smith is an adjunct lecturer at Eller College in Arizona and he also is the CFO of Vante, a catheter manufacturing company

Some did not even acknowledge that it was National Chick-fil-A Day and instead called it National Eat Fried Food for Freedom Day or as Fox New Reporter Shep Smith called it, National Day of Intolerance.

 

Don't forget, November 6 2012 is National Republican Appreciation Day.   You must be registered to participate so get on that right now..

I am a Christian

I care about my country

I will VOTE
and encourage others to VOTE! 

 

I'd like to end with this post with aquote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a writer, who, through his often-suppressed writings, helped to raise global awareness of the gulag.

To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail.

You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.

If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible what was the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.’

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society.

And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.