No Shoes, No Shirt, No Shower, No Service - An Incident of Public Humiliation

I went to McDonald's yesterday to grab lunch on my way to the library. While inside waiting for my order a homeless man walked in and shuffled his way into line to place his order. His clothes were filthy and his hair was too. He was completely aware of this fact, as he kept nervously looking around to see if people were staring as he tried to smooth his unruly hair down on his head. I looked around and saw a shocking number of people staring at him with a look of utter disgust on their faces, and immediately felt even worse for him. 

The line eventually worked forward until it was his turn to order. Dollar bill in hand, he limped slowly towards the young cashier who asked if she could take his order. He said "Can I please have a double cheesebu..." when suddenly the manager flew up behind the cashier and shouted "DON'T SERVE HIM...HE SMELLS!! GET OUT!" 

I'll not soon forget the look of utter humiliation and shame that came over that man's weathered face as he turned around and with his head hung low, scuttled outside. My mouth dropped. Literally. I was standing there shocked. Not only was that manager unnecessarily nasty to that man...but he did it so loudly! He clearly wanted to humiliate the already nervous and embarrassed man. 

"No shoes, No shirt...you smell...no service" he tells the girl still very loudly as soon as the door closed behind the man. I thought, WOW...now he's just making up amendments to the McDonald's terms of service. 

I turned to my right, (mouth probably still hanging open) and the man next to me met my gaze and shook his head. I was instantly relieved that someone else felt flabbergasted at what had just happened. 

"I can't believe he came in here smelling like that. That's terrible!" the man said grabbing his young children's hands and walking towards their table. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Who thinks that way?

What is WRONG with people? That is all I kept thinking. So I marched up to the counter to the sheepish looking young cashier, she understood as we made instant eye contact when it happened and I saw the embarrassment and sorrow in her eyes...poor girl has to deal with that insane manager daily! Being the anti-confrontational person I am, I decided against telling the manager what a nasty bastard I thought he was...instead I bought a double cheeseburger to bring out to that homeless man.

Why should he go hungry when he HAS the money to buy a MCDONALDS CHEESEBURGER. I mean come on. It's MCDONALDS....not Mr. Chows. Give me a break. 

Much to my dismay, when I went outside with the double cheeseburger for the man, he was no where to be found. I assume he went walking down Ventura Ave to find the next fast food place that may or may not take his money. 

This incident really shook me up. I still feel kinda upset about it today. I wonder if that guy ever got anything to eat with his dollar. You know, It's not in my nature to expect bad things from people. I'm a pretty positive person, and I perfer to see the best in people day to day. I've always been that way, sometimes it works out for me, and sometimes it doesn't. But incidents like what I witnessed yesterday never fail to remind me just how nasty some people really can be.