Tonight I witnessed a man digging through the garbage of the Burger King adjacent to this 76 station. I called him over and offered to spend the last $1.84 on my EBT to give this poor guy something to eat. I was once homeless for almost six years, and it was the kindness of random strangers that kept me going.
The clerk, a thin guy in his late twenties with glasses, a ponytail, bad teeth, and a thin beard that was tied into a knot, made a comment about the guy outside who I was buying a bag of chips for. I told him the guy was waiting for me, and that I was buying the chips for him. The following is a near word-for-word recount of the conversation that took place.
Me: "I'm getting him some chips. Dude was digging through the garbage over there."
Clerk: "Why?"
"Well I'm guessing because he's hungry."
"No, why are you buying him food?"
"...because he was DIGGING through the GARBAGE."
"So?"
"So I was there once, and I-"
"Yeah, so was I. Then I got a JOB." (extra emphasis on "got a job")
"Listen. When I was on the street, I wish more people had tried to help me out."
"He's out here all the time doing this. He doesn't help himself."
That was when the chips were rung up and I walked the hell out of there before I did something that would land me in jail.
It is not this man's job to have an opinion. His job is to scan what I give him, tell me the price, take my money, and give me my change.
The only words that I want to hear from this guy while he's working - unless prompted by myself (and even then, watch what you freaking say) - is "Your total will be _____" and "Have a nice day/night/weekend".
People like this, who will look at another human being who is eating food from the garbage and think "yup, he deserves this" are exactly why people have to live like this guy does.
My religion is that everything you do is energy, and thus you should only do good energy. Helping a hungry human being is how I worship the planet I live on and the other people that live on it.
Telling me that that is anything but okay is unconstitutional. You CANNOT persecute others for their religion. It's against the law and it's against your company's policy on costumer relations. read more