Nashville florist refuses large RNC fundraiser order, calls for gun reform

[Abolishinist]

48. Wow. For those who haven't read their Instagram post,

accessible from the link to the Tennessean, I highly recommend doing so. Not sure if I'm breaking a rule by posting it in its entirety, but here goes.

If you’ve been here a while you know that I don’t tend to shy away from using this platform to speak my mind. Many people view it as me linking my personal politics and my business. But I have always kept a hard line that few notice. When I speak up it’s always to advocate for human rights. I’ve been loud about protecting Black lives, the illness of racism in our country, and in defense of trans people. These things should not be considered political in my opinion.

So this post feels different to me. I want to make very clear that while I tend to lean quite liberal (I’m sure you’re all surprised) I DO believe in a society of varied beliefs. I think there is immense value to be gained from conservative viewpoints. I think a balance between liberalism and conservatism is healthy and vital. This statement is meant for those within the Republican Party, not people who hold conservative values, who have co-opted those values and skewed them to an unrecognizable point and have let their own people and the whole of the country down in the name of power and greed.

George Washington upon leaving office said, “however political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves the reins of government.”

Either party holds the potential for what GW warned against but right now there is one party in particular that stands out. And since they’ve gerrymandered my district to the point of taking away my representation and those of so many others, these are the means by which I can make my voice heard. The budget for this job was large. Not something we would ordinarily turn down. But as the email says, there’s blood on that money and we can have no part in that.