I was happy to take my daughter to Chick-Fil-A this afternoon.

My agenda in doing so was not at all complicated. By going there, we were not expressing an agenda against a specific group of people. Had we stayed home, we would not have been expressing any sort of opinion regarding gay marriage.

My reasoning in going was two-fold.

First, Chick-Fil-A seems to treats its employees with care. You won’t find them open on Sunday, for that very reason. Chick-Fil-A treats people the way I always strive to treat people. I respect that.

More importantly, I believe strongly in our First Amendment. While our First Amendment does not protect people from the ramifications of free speech, it does not hold us back from making opinions known – regardless of the ramifications. Of course, freedom of speech does have its limits and is more complicated than I portray it here.

Had my daughter and I stayed home today, it would not have made a statement about our stance on free speech.

So while my daughter and I walked for what seemed to be a mile, and stood in a long line for our food, we did not talk very much about gay marriage.

What we did talk about was the First Amendment – a discussion topic one would not expect to hear about, as it relates to a discussion between a father and a teenage daughter.

And while we talked about free speech, I couldn’t help but think that our freedoms are very similar to Chick-Fil-A fries in one respect – I have a strong appetite for both freedom and fries.

So if you saw us at Chick-Fil-A this afternoon, our presence there was not in the spirit of condemnation.

We were there in the spirit of freedom.

Isn’t that something we can all share in common?