Major hat tip to The Other McCain and Patterico's Pontifications.
The video below is of a man, Adam Smith, who visited the drive through of Chick-Fil-A on Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, where tens of thousands of free speech supporters participated in going to Chick-Fil-A to buy food, Smith received his free water, then proceeded to verbally abuse the young woman serving him at the window. He did this on film and then uploaded it at YouTube. He took it down later but not before others grabbed it and now it has been uploaded again.
Adam Smith, formerly Chief Financial Officer at Vante, is now unemployed:
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 had a “good relationship” with Chick-fil-A. He said the company will consider contacting the employee Smith ambushed in an attempt to mend fences.
Reached at Chick-fil-A, the employee declined comment. Smith did not respond to messages left via email or through the University of Arizona. UA spokespeople did not return messages asking whether or not Smith would continue to teach classes, although Smith’s profile was scrubbed from UA’s faculty listings Thursday.
Now Smith has just put himself into the 8.3 percent of Americans that are unemployed.
[Update] The Blaze has interviews Smith who's claims contradict the Vante statement of his termination being "mutual" and he claims he was terminated without the option of explaining himself, though the video he uploaded seems pretty clear cut.
We had an exclusive conversation with Smith where he shared his side of the story. Here’s a taste of what he said (we’ll be releasing more later):
- He has 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)
- His family has been threatened with violence and death. (At one point, his email account was getting 3 messages a minute, mostly vulgar and threatening)
- Because his home address was made public, he cannot live in his house. (And Mr. Smith is a married father of four – two of his children are adopted, special needs kids.)
- Smith said that his original intent was to follow guidelines laid out in an online video, which included quoting a scripture.
Questions to ponder: Does Smith deserve sympathy or is he reaping what he sowed and can his claims of death threats be believed?
Or is he simply playing the victim card because he acted without thinking?