In the world of chicken sandwiches, a recent uproar clamored against Chick-fil-A, a fast food joint which had been donating millions of dollars to organizations opposing gay marriage. Soon after the truth was unveiled, an intense boycott began.

Many wondered whether this kind of boycott was valid, especially when the corporation was just a simple chicken sandwich establishment. It had never been associated with any sort of politics beforehand. But its CEO, Dan Cathy, chose to take the company’s funds and send them off to politically controversial organizations. And all of a sudden, Chick-fil-A was sliding down the slippery slope of between business and politics. And one of the organizations Chick-fil-A was associating with, the Family Research Council, had been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

That meant customers, some of whom were gay and in relationships, had been buying their products, and inadvertently giving money to organizations that seek to trample their dreams of ever marrying their partner.

At first the ongoing boycott, organized by paying customers, was justified. No one should censure customers who felt betrayed by Chick-fil-A’s decision to fund organizations with which they disagreed.

But democracy worked, and so now, the boycott needs to come to an end. The boycotters exercised their rights to both free speech and peaceful assembly. Cathy listened, considered and accepted their rebuke. His company released a statement declaring that Chick-fil-A wished to remove itself from “the policy debate over same-sex marriage.”

Both the boycott and the CEO’s reaction to it should be applauded. The entire Chick-fil-A blowup has re-enforced the idea that our country was founded upon principles that encouraged people to fight against whatever the find unjust.  The plan was that after their voices were heard,  if their case had merit, the other side would relent or compromise. That is exactly what happened here. People were able to affect the way events unraveled through the simple powers of unity and speech.

Although Cathy probably should have donated from his own pocket to begin with, he learned a very consequential lesson. And that is that the American people’s voice will always be a driving force in our country and can’t ever be silenced. God bless America.