Homeless Kicked out of Illinois Starbucks
HT BoingBoing:
Thwarted in her attempt to enjoy a cup of a
coffee at her favorite spot, Louise Kilborn unwittingly found herself
at the center of a social debate that’s been brewing for years.
The
70-year-old Lisle woman was kicked out of the Starbucks in downtown
Glen Ellyn a few weeks ago. She claims it was because employees mistook
her as a homeless person, part of a purge the store waged to mollify
customers who complained that the coffee shop was overrun with the
homeless.
Despite an apology from the
Seattle-based coffee giant, Kilborn says she isn’t looking for one. She
wants something done to address the circumstances that prompted her
removal in the first place.
“The issue
here is not that I was asked to leave Starbucks,” Kilborn said. “It is
the treatment of the homeless who are singled out.”
This story reminds me of an excellent law review article by Jeremy Waldron from a few years ago about the particularly acute problem faced by homeless people within a society structured around private property protected by a robust right to exclude. In recent years, the problem has become even more oppressive as public property has become increasingly hostile to their presence, as evinced by the growing popularity of laws prohibiting loitering, sleeping in public, etc.. (Interestingly, a number of courts have held the enforcement of such laws unconstitutional because they result in cruel and unusual punishment since the homeless simply cannot avoid the practices from which they are prohibited in engaging if they are to remain living, physically embodied human beings.) The homeless need to be somewhere, in a very literal sense of that word, but they have no place to go.
This past Sunday as I was rounding the corner to enter the church for Mass, I was stopped by a homeless man asking for spare change. As I dug around in my purse he mumbled that he had been asked to leave the front of the church by “the priest.” This is not the first time that the homeless have been booted away from the front of this church. Last year the pastor of the church called the cops on another street man who was hanging around the front of the church. I spoke with the officer after Father went back into the priory and I asked what was going on. The officer told me that he had been called several times in the past few weeks because parishoners were complaining. (The church I attend is an urban church surrounded by an ivy league campus. Homeless folks are always around.)
To your point, Eduardo, the homeless have to be somewhere. These homeless folks were near a church and a very rich university. They are not welcome in either place. Maybe the school should get a bye on this (and I’m not sure about this). But the church should not. Of all places not to welcome the poor and homeless! I am sure my fellow parushoners were made uncomfortable by having to walk past these folks in order to go to Sunday Mass. But maybe that is the point . Maybe we should be uncomfortable. What if the pastor had not shooed him away? Maybe we all could have better absorbed the message of Jesus, whom we were all on our way to worship. (Of course, I am not blameless either. I still have not addressed this issue with our pastor. I guess I, too, am part of the crowd I am railing against.)
It’s easy to get self-righteous about this. On more than a few occasions my husband’s church has been approached by homeless people — for instance, for meals at a communal supper. In general, our response has been to offer to find shelter and additional support — driving people to the Salvation Army, or other support services. And we’ve never turned down a homeless person who requests a meal at a time when many members are present. But. One homeless person who came by a lot entered the church and set a sofa on fire, resulting in substantial damage to the roof. Another aggressively solicited church members, including elderly women, for money and shelter, and it turned out that he had an outstanding warrant for child abuse. The church has a daycare center. I don’t know what the complaints of the Starbucks customers were, whether the priests had tried to help these homeless people, or whether they harassed members, rather than being just an uncomfortable reminder to parishioners. Many homeless people are mentally ill. Many don’t want help in a conventional sense. The desire for peace and personal safety is legitimate. So is the need for compassionate aid and intervention. Not every exclusionary act is unjust.
Despite the many worthwhile Catholic outreach programs for the homeless (e.g., the Catholic Worker movement), in my area it is our Protestant brothers and sisters who are ahead of the curve on the homelessness issue, including finding creative ways to bring religious services to the homeless, who are sometimes understandably reluctant to enter churches and participate in the services there. Many Protestant denominations seem more amenable to creating churches without walls–for example, the “Church Under the Overpass” (a real church)– whose ministry is clearly grasped from its name. It’s kind of a “Have Bible, Will Travel” attitude as they seek out the missing digits in the Body of Christ and try to reconnect them to the whole. Again, I’m not knocking the efforts made by Catholics or the Catholic Church itself, and perhaps bringing Mass to the homeless where they seek temporary shelter would be somewhat cumbersome, but it’s hard not to admire the efforts of some of the local Protestant churches and organizations to address both the bodily and spiritual needs of the homeless.
Perhaps Starbucks could donate coffee to day shelters for the homeless. Our diocese has such a shelter, and coffee is a popular beverage there. Perhaps other companies such as McDonald’s, etc. could do the same.
I agree with Barbara that it is easy to become self-righteous and wax indignant about the plight of the homeless. The problem is far more complicated than it is commonly depicted in some respects and perhaps simpler in others.
First – I relate a true story for no other reason than it is interesting and somewhat germane. About 15 years ago my wife and I went on a four-day package trip to Las Vegas – the only vacation we could afford at the time. It was one of those trips where almost everything went wrong – most of all the weather. It was the first week in June – typically hot and dry – and it rained all week and barely broke into the 60’s. We didn’t bring jackets, and were cold most of the time we were outside. On the last day we decided to go from the Strip, where our hotel was to downtown where some of the old casinos were. We took a city bus. When we got on we sat in the front in seats that faced the center of the bus. I wanted to be able to see the street signs so we’d know where to get off. The bus had about twenty people on it. After about a mile, a homeless man got on. He was a little guy and very, very dirty. He sat directly across from us. Almost immediately you could smell an odor that I cannot describe either in quality or intensity. I had never before nor since smelled anything like it. It literally, and I mean literally, made my eyes water. People began immediately moving to the back of the bus. At the next stop at least half got off and a few that were getting on immediately stepped off. One woman who had been gagging actually vomited when she got off. Then began the shouting, with passengers yelling at the driver to “Get that guy off!” The man, who was barely conscious, would look up at us and smile every few seconds. My wife would nod and smile back. After a few minutes, I leaned over and whispered to her, would you like to get off or move?” She said, almost in a shocked tone, “No! I don’t want to hurt his feelings.” All the while people are shouting and swearing at him, and she is worried about offending him. Later, when I would tell this story I would say, “That guy wasn’t ‘feeling’ anything,” but at that moment, I was extraordinarily proud of her. Everyone else saw a problem, and she saw a person. I think that’s the simple part. Seeing people as people makes it easier to treat them as such.
That being said, this is a very complex social problem, and I often wonder what the Christian response is, and whether we are even close to getting it right.
I always liked C.S. Lewis’s description of Christian love. It is not having warm feelings, in fact it has little to do with feelings at all. Christian love is willing and working for another’s good for his or her own sake – without an ulterior motive. I wonder if we are doing this with the homeless. Like so many Christian teachings, love is full of contradiction. To love another we have to will what is good for him, but we also have to respect his autonomy and free will. Have we ignored doing what is beneficial in the name of autonomy? Are we really meeting our Christian obligation by giving a man a sandwich and cot and then sending him out to drink Thunderbird in an alley? Are we looking at love in terms of what it does for us, how it makes us feel, rather than doing what is right for the other?
“To love another we have to will what is good for him…[to do] what is right for the other.” And herein, perhaps, lies the rub.
One cannot assume responsibility for another’s actions. A person determined to kill himself, for example, will find a way and a time to do so (involuntary commitment to a hospital for observation and treatment doesn’t always work). We may have the best of intentions for the other’s welfare, but autonomy — no matter how well or poorly exercised — will always win out.
“Have we ignored doing what is beneficial in the name of autonomy?” One might only reply, “Would we have it any other way in a free society?”
(Regarding your experience on the bus, Sean, I’m with you. The dirty guy exercised his autonomy; I’d be exercising mine :)
Sean–
Did anything else happen subsequent to the events you relate about the encounter on the bus? Just curious…
As to C.S. Lewis’s description of Christian love, I think he was speaking about agape, the “unconditional love” BXVI contrasts so well with eros in Deus Caritas Est. Agape is love given with no expectation of something in return, though even BXVI says that’s a difficult motivation to master. The British Catholic writer Margaret Silf describes it as the emptying out of one’s unique gifts. According to Silf, we’re here on earth so that on the day we meet God face to face, we can say that we have returned home empty-handed, that all of the gifts and talents He gave us were entirely used up in His service and in the service of others. That’s a tall order, of course, and the devil is in the details, but it’s an image that helps me in the day-to-day challenge to practice agapeic love.
In terms of the bus trip, after a few more blocks the driver finally stopped the bus, went over to the guy and asked him to get off. He handed him a bus token and a couple of bucks. I got the impression he didn’t want to do it but felt he had to before things got out of control.
I think you are right about Lewis as he describes love in The Four Loves. I was thinking more about him explaining what is meant by love your enemies and love your neighbor in Mere Christianity.
I dont have the time to tell of what happened to me an my two homeless friends who are nothing like thieves or robbers however if you want to know my experience at my job and how most people in better social standings have judged us then go to calvinchelsey93 at myspace at look at my blog their it is my way of venting but the story is there and i believe the title is judjment based on social status, anyway my heart is not bitter just hurt by my co workers and their blindness thank you.