Following yesterday’s reference here to Sir Paul McCartney’s “Carpool Karaoke” appearance, and before Michael wrote his column (above), MNB reader Jeff Gartner wrote:
Hey Kevin, I was going to recommend the Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke to you after reading your Paul Simon concert review. I was going to use the word "joyous" to describe it, you used "happy."
Our youngest daughter (age 29) went to last Wednesday night's Paul Simon concert in Nashville and loved it. I told her I was jealous. The last of of his many encore songs was Bye Bye Love, an old Everly Brothers tune, and our daughter said he invited Don Everly to join him on the stage.
From another reader:
Thank you for the link to the show with Paul McCartney. I would have never have seen it otherwise. It was wonderful. It did make me happy. Thank you.
And from MNB reader Monte Stowell:
What a great treat this am to watch the Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke link. You made my day a whole lot brighter by taking me down Penny Lane and Memory Lane.
Great content in today’s MNB.
I suggested yesterday, a little tongue-in-cheek, that Oreo’s next flavor extension ought to be marijuana-infused, leading one MNB reader to write:
I never inhaled either KC, but I have heard it gives you the munchies. But the Oreo's thing, what a scam they have going! Talk about market share, how many flavors have they come up with? I'd love to know. But I have to ask, none of their marketing people could have thought of this thirty years ago?
I actually think the constant barrage of new flavors has gotten a little tiresome … like an easy excuse not to really innovate. But maybe that’s just me.
In the context of a commentary yesterday, I made the following comment:
When we get to the point that a person of one political persuasion is asked to leave a restaurant because of those beliefs, I think we’ve crossed a line.
One MNB reader responded:
When we get to the point that a person with and connected to a great deal of destructive power and who intentionally uses that power to ruin many thousands of people’s (children’s, babies) lives gets any kind of sympathy for being asked to leave a restaurant, we know as society we have our values and our priorities totally and dangerously mixed up. Now that's a huge moral line that's been crossed.
From MNB reader Vall Ajgaonkar:
The thoughts paraphrased below are credited to the following activists, educators, & writers: Juan Pa Brammer, Laurie Penny, Steve Schmidt, Brian Klaas…
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not asked to leave a restaurant because of a difference in fiscal policy approach or philosophy of the role of federal government.
She was refused because the owner of the restaurant spoke to her employees and they (LGBTQ people, immigrants) didn’t feel comfortable serving someone who represents an administration which has implemented policies/engaged in rhetoric consistent with that of white supremacists.
I say “white supremacists” instead of “Nazis” only because I fear you will see the word as hyperbole and not for the factual parallels that historians repeatedly cite.
Your privilege (i.e. lack of stakes in the game) is blinding you to the real-life (or death) consequences of the “political persuasions” of this administration.
Tolerating intolerance does not make you a better person. It makes you complicit.
And from MNB reader Theresa Zaske:
Not very long ago you seemed to suggest that LGBT people should be willing to go somewhere else if a florist or baker, etc. didn’t want to serve them.
But not serving someone because of their “political persuasion” is crossing a line?
I respectfully disagree. If folks like me can be denied service and asked to find alternatives, so can others.
I think I am guilty of prevaricating.
I believe in both freedom of religion and civil rights. But I also believe that sometimes people use religion as a rationale for denying other people their civil rights, and I think this is wrong.
I believe that baking a cake is not the same thing as endorsing gay marriage. If you don’t approve of gay marriage, don’t marry someone of the same gender.
When I talked about the gay couple perhaps going elsewhere to get their cake, it was in the interest - if I am going to be honest - of sometimes preferring the avoidance of conflict. If the baker doesn’t want the business, my reasoning went, then give the business to someone else.
But that doesn’t always work. And people, in my view, ought not be able to decide to whom they want to sell products and services. You’re open for business, you’re open for business to everybody.
It is correct to point out that I’ve never been denied a product or service because of who I am, or the color of my skin, or who I love. Utterly fair.
I understand the rationale for asking Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave the restaurant. But I cannot lie to you … I am troubled by our culture’s growing polarization and incivility. I have more friends who disagree with me politically than who agree with me, but I am not willing to give up those friendships.
I don’t think that makes me complicit. But I am uneasy about it all, while trying to be thoughtful, and concerned that we all are going down a dark hole of intolerance from which there may be no easy return.
Hey Kevin, I was going to recommend the Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke to you after reading your Paul Simon concert review. I was going to use the word "joyous" to describe it, you used "happy."
Our youngest daughter (age 29) went to last Wednesday night's Paul Simon concert in Nashville and loved it. I told her I was jealous. The last of of his many encore songs was Bye Bye Love, an old Everly Brothers tune, and our daughter said he invited Don Everly to join him on the stage.
From another reader:
Thank you for the link to the show with Paul McCartney. I would have never have seen it otherwise. It was wonderful. It did make me happy. Thank you.
And from MNB reader Monte Stowell:
What a great treat this am to watch the Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke link. You made my day a whole lot brighter by taking me down Penny Lane and Memory Lane.
Great content in today’s MNB.
I suggested yesterday, a little tongue-in-cheek, that Oreo’s next flavor extension ought to be marijuana-infused, leading one MNB reader to write:
I never inhaled either KC, but I have heard it gives you the munchies. But the Oreo's thing, what a scam they have going! Talk about market share, how many flavors have they come up with? I'd love to know. But I have to ask, none of their marketing people could have thought of this thirty years ago?
I actually think the constant barrage of new flavors has gotten a little tiresome … like an easy excuse not to really innovate. But maybe that’s just me.
In the context of a commentary yesterday, I made the following comment:
When we get to the point that a person of one political persuasion is asked to leave a restaurant because of those beliefs, I think we’ve crossed a line.
One MNB reader responded:
When we get to the point that a person with and connected to a great deal of destructive power and who intentionally uses that power to ruin many thousands of people’s (children’s, babies) lives gets any kind of sympathy for being asked to leave a restaurant, we know as society we have our values and our priorities totally and dangerously mixed up. Now that's a huge moral line that's been crossed.
From MNB reader Vall Ajgaonkar:
The thoughts paraphrased below are credited to the following activists, educators, & writers: Juan Pa Brammer, Laurie Penny, Steve Schmidt, Brian Klaas…
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not asked to leave a restaurant because of a difference in fiscal policy approach or philosophy of the role of federal government.
She was refused because the owner of the restaurant spoke to her employees and they (LGBTQ people, immigrants) didn’t feel comfortable serving someone who represents an administration which has implemented policies/engaged in rhetoric consistent with that of white supremacists.
I say “white supremacists” instead of “Nazis” only because I fear you will see the word as hyperbole and not for the factual parallels that historians repeatedly cite.
Your privilege (i.e. lack of stakes in the game) is blinding you to the real-life (or death) consequences of the “political persuasions” of this administration.
Tolerating intolerance does not make you a better person. It makes you complicit.
And from MNB reader Theresa Zaske:
Not very long ago you seemed to suggest that LGBT people should be willing to go somewhere else if a florist or baker, etc. didn’t want to serve them.
But not serving someone because of their “political persuasion” is crossing a line?
I respectfully disagree. If folks like me can be denied service and asked to find alternatives, so can others.
I think I am guilty of prevaricating.
I believe in both freedom of religion and civil rights. But I also believe that sometimes people use religion as a rationale for denying other people their civil rights, and I think this is wrong.
I believe that baking a cake is not the same thing as endorsing gay marriage. If you don’t approve of gay marriage, don’t marry someone of the same gender.
When I talked about the gay couple perhaps going elsewhere to get their cake, it was in the interest - if I am going to be honest - of sometimes preferring the avoidance of conflict. If the baker doesn’t want the business, my reasoning went, then give the business to someone else.
But that doesn’t always work. And people, in my view, ought not be able to decide to whom they want to sell products and services. You’re open for business, you’re open for business to everybody.
It is correct to point out that I’ve never been denied a product or service because of who I am, or the color of my skin, or who I love. Utterly fair.
I understand the rationale for asking Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave the restaurant. But I cannot lie to you … I am troubled by our culture’s growing polarization and incivility. I have more friends who disagree with me politically than who agree with me, but I am not willing to give up those friendships.
I don’t think that makes me complicit. But I am uneasy about it all, while trying to be thoughtful, and concerned that we all are going down a dark hole of intolerance from which there may be no easy return.
- KC's View:
