Aaron Blanco of Brown Coffee Company removed the apology from his website yesterday and posted this on his company blog today:
For a while Tuesday I considered closing the cafe for a day or a week to let this crud blow over, hoping maybe our military decided to bomb Bermuda or something so the subject could be changed. Seriously. We were a bit worried for our persons. But then I figured, why? Why do I need to do anything differently? I know who I am. I’m not any of those things any of those people said about me. And so we opened our doors like normal. And something very normal happened. People came in the door and they bought coffee. Lots of it. Extra bags of it. Extra rounds of it. They bought coffee gear, empty jute bags we have lying around and extra packs of coffee filters. They bought drinks for people they’ve never bought drinks for. They bought Brown shirts for themselves that they already owned. They bought practically anything that wasn’t nailed down. And they smiled. And it was good. And there was much rejoicing.
I haven’t checked yet, but I think we had our second biggest sales day ever, second only to the last day before Christmas last year. And so I want to say thank you. Thanks to all of you who showed us that while personal beliefs are, well, very personal, they do not have to be buried or compartmentalized; that we are undeniably whole people. Thank you to all of you, those who tend to agree with my worldviews and to those who don’t, who came and supported us out of the principles of free speech. Thank you for showing us that businesses are populated by people, not automatons; and people have feelings. And there is nothing written anywhere that says that the people who run/own businesses cannot have opinions that some people consider unpopular, even in the name of the business. That is part of what makes this country so great. If you don’t like one business, go to another. Take your dollars somewhere else. Or start taking your dollars here. It’s your choice. Just don’t act like a angry Cubs fan about it, is all.
