Think about this . . .
hypothetically speaking—

IF I own a sports arena and I love SWEET TEA,
so I sell it to people who come there to watch
the competitions AND,
because I sell so much, the vendor gives me
a break on the price for the product meaning
I can sell it for less than others around me.

Then, a friend of mine is diagnosed with
diabetes and starts having to watch his sugar
intake. He can’t buy my SWEET TEA and that
leaves him with no other options, but he has
adjusted to drinking UNsweet tea and asks
me if I would consider stocking it so he could
drink some tea when he came to the arena.
Well, I want to help my friend, so I start selling
both SWEET TEA and UNsweet tea.

Then, I get acquainted with a man who
comes to the arena a lot and I notice he is not
drinking anything while he is there and some
of those days were very hot, so I asked him
about that and he said he belongs to a group
who believe it is sinful to drink tea of any kind
because they think it harms the body.
Well, I had never heard of that, so I gave it
some thought and decided to ask him what
he could drink and I would add that to
my menu.

Things were really going along fine and
everybody was able to enjoy drinking
something during their visits to the arena . . .
but, then someone came to me and said,
“What are you doing wasting your money
carrying all these drinks besides SWEET
TEA? You know it is the most popular with
the most folks and you don’t have to carry
those other drinks—
it’s a waste of your money.”

So, I thought about it and he was right, but
there were other things to consider, like my
friend who had to restrict his sugar and my
friend who had a religious conviction against
tea, so I answered my objecting friend by
explaining about being considerate of others
and his response was quick:
“So, are you going to let others
tell you what to do?
Are you going to waste your money for just
a few people who probably don’t even spend
that much with you?
Do what YOU like—SWEET TEA and
forget all that other stuff!”

The thought popped into my head . . .
what if there was NO SWEET TEA?
What if there were ONLY the other drinks and
I couldn’t enjoy my SWEET TEA???
No, there was really nothing to consider.
If I wanted to enjoy my SWEET TEA,
I should be willing to let others enjoy
what they could drink.
I didn’t have to drink what they were drinking,
I could drink my SWEET TEA . . .
and that seemed fair to me!
Ah, the politics of SWEET TEA!