Greeson: Chicken or the egg replaced by decency or not

Jay Greeson
Jay Greeson

Which came first - the chicken or the egg?

Better yet, which came first - the chicken or the dregs?

Forget the hot dog. America's national food is now fried chicken. Everywhere you look there's a chicken joint popping up. Sure, they may offer a burger or three. They may even offer a burrito or dos. (But even Taco Bell knows that the only thing that makes tacos better is a fried chicken shell.)

Swing by your neighborhood Chick-Fil-A, and know that while the service is excellent, a customer line should be expected.

Yes, the CFA may be the Cadillac of Chicken Choices, but the growing number of Zaxby's and Guthrie's and wing options like Heavenly Flavored Wings to the national chains screams a cluck-cluck narrative.

Heck, Sunday at 4:15 p.m. at the Fort Oglethorpe KFC was hopping for poultry's sake.

And there's more.

While the hot dog and even apple pie may have songs, the chicken has a passion that zooms from Zax sauce to zany.

To wit, let's review a couple of recent incidents.

Meet Valerie Shepherd, a 21-year-old in Iowa who was arrested last week at a McDonald's in Des Moines for assaulting a restaurant employee because her chicken sandwich did not arrive in time.

There's also a Central Texas woman who was forced to leave the drive-thru line after she and the McDonald's called 911 at the same time because of frustration after a delayed nugget delivery.

The woman last Friday was not moving from the line until she got her nuggets and her money back, and the restaurant needed her to spread her wings and fly by the pick-up window.

She was refunded her nest egg, but left nugget-less. (Yes, nugget-less is as bad as it sounds.)

The number of chickens consumed in this country is feather-ruffling.

Chicken surpassed beef in terms of pounds of consumption in America in 2014. Each American is estimated to consume more than 90 pounds of chicken this year. (Beef projections are at 57 pounds per person this year.)

Yes, we love our chicken, but when we have multiple fouls and outrage with the lack of timely nugget delivery or McSlow McChicken, that's not a food issue.

That's an us issue, right?

Who thinks to call 911 in the drive-through line because their nuggets are slow? Who thinks to assault the person behind the counter for a slow sandwich?

Yes, we can complain about so many things, but the issue of decency and politeness could very well be our biggest problem.

That's sad, and something that leaves us all without a leg to stand on.

Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.

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