The Man and the McDonald's Manager

She slammed both her open palms on the table near the disheveled-looking man's head, startling him to alertness but not before the vibration of her rude awakening knocked over his tepid small-sized cup of coffee.

"Huh?" the man moaned. He sat up straight and looked around as though to hope no one was looking at him. "I haven't finished my coffee yet." He reached across the table to where he thought he had last set it.

"Yo sho 'nough did! I ought ta make ya clean up dat mess!" she laughed, pointing to the floor. She looked around, bowing, as though to hope that her audience was pleased with her performance. "Now git on out here fo I call da po-leese!" She pushed her masking-tape mended glasses back up her nose, and then started to walk back to the serving counter.

"I'd like another cup of coffee, please," the man said politely, but softly, and began to fish through every pocket he had as though to hope there would be some loose change left after what he had spent for the first cup. He came up empty.

The manager did an immediate 'about face' and marched back to the man's table. She slammed both palms down again and pointed to an obscure, hand-written sign taped crooked on an opposite wall.

"Caint ya read honky!?!? It say 'NO LOITRIN' ... Now GIT!! Dis ain't a bet an breffis!"

She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him effortlessly out of the booth. He fell on one knee, then his butt... and sat in the puddle of spilled coffee to catch his breath...

FADE TO BLACK...

So... what do you think: Fact or Fiction?

Sadly, this is a true story. It happened at a busy McDonald's restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I don't imagine it would be hard to imagine it happening in any major city, though, where homeless people scrounge around at night trying to find warmth and shelter and manage to come up with $1.06 in change to buy a cup of coffee before they go about trying to survive another day on the streets. Yes, a sad, true story, not unlike a lot of stories that you'll never see on the television news or on the front pages of the newspapers, or your internet's "home page." And I have to ask myself, why?

Not "Why aren't there stories like this to be seen and read?" but more agonizing is the real "Why" question: Why has the wealthiest nation on the planet allowed this kind of thing to happen to its citizens? And I suppose I could throw in a couple more questions... How did this happen? and how long are we going to keep putting up with such a disgrace? Millions of dollars... wait... I take that back... BILLIONS of dollars are spent on foreign aid, benefiting those on the globe much less fortunate. Come on now... let's get real. "Charity begins at home" as that familiar expression says. When did the United States of America become the entire "Mother Earth," responsible for taking care of every other society that doesn't have it as good as we do?

There's something definitely wrong with this picture. Homeless citizens of the United States of America... natural born citizens of this country, many even veterans of military service to this country, are living in cardboard shelters beneath highway ramps and eating restaurant garbage out of dumpsters while a lot of the tax dollars that many of them probably paid most of their lives are being sent overseas to "less fortunate" countries. One would think that by now those "developing nations" would be quite adequately developed considering they probably have more of our money than they'll ever know what to do with! And it's not just the cold hard cash they're taking either; it's also our jobs and other resources that drive once-productive American citizens to those cardboard boxes and dumpsters.

Sure, we have welfare programs in America, and yes, there is welfare fraud going on all the time. But welfare fraud isn't the problem, and meager welfare benefits aren't the solution. In spite of all the social services available, we still have an epidemic of homelessness. And we will continue to have this plague on our society as long as the more adequate funding sources that are available are being directed overseas. But even that's not the problem.

As long as the "Captains of Industry" choose to keep sending our jobs overseas (because the labor is cheaper!), we will continue to watch the erosion of the foundation of our society, the "middle class" and "blue collar" people who buy all that stuff that the Captains of Industry think they're getting made so much cheaper. Apparently, they can't see down to earth from their lofty glass towers, but if they don't at least start looking in that direction, they may wake up to a shattered world when the folks holding up those ladders finally get tired and walk away. (And then who is left to buy all that stuff that they're getting made so much cheaper?)

FADE BACK FROM BLACK...

There was a happy ending to the story above. As that humiliated man picked himself up off the floor, another customer walked up to the abusive manager carrying two trays. "You can't treat this man like that," he said to her.

"Oh, he's jess one a dem homeless bums thinks he can park his sorry butt in here all day..."

"No, you're wrong," the Good Samaritan interrupted. "He is your customer, and that cup of coffee you knocked over was part of what is going to make your paycheck this week. And, right now, he's not going anywhere because he is my guest for breakfast."

Now that would've been a great commercial for MasterCard™ ... the look on that manager's face was... "Priceless."

Oh, and one more question for you. How can you be so certain that it couldn't someday be you falling asleep at a McDonald's after spending the night before freezing in the streets? Never say "never" ... because you just never know...

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