The Inhumanity of Humans: ... on Life Without Toast

# inhumaneness: the quality of lacking compassion or consideration for others
# atrocity: an act of atrocious cruelty

I know I know I haven't written in aaaaaaaaages but I have been busy and also haven't been inspired for a while, until today that is.

There is a man who lives near the restaurant where I work. He is probably in his 50's or 60's and quite obviously has some kind of mental illness, what it is exactly I am not sure of, but I see him all the time and he talks to himself in the street always, chatting away, full blown conversations with himself and he makes strange faces a lot. He is always walking up and down the street, up and down, up and down all day. He comes into the restaurant sometimes, for coffee, for soup, for tea, for a chat mostly. He is very obviously lonely. He is not doing any body any harm, ever.

He was in today for his lunch. He always has soup with extra bread. He was sitting there minding his own business talking to one of the waiters. No one else was sitting inside because it was so sunny. Then he went to sit at one of the tables on the terrace, to smoke a cigarette. As he was coming back inside a table of 6 was also coming in. One of them stopped him coming in by putting his foot to the bottom of the door. Why? Because this man is different. He is "strange". "We don't want HIS sort in here". Do we? Why not? Why would we not? He was a customer, a regular customer at that, he was paying, he was not bothering anyone and yet this man, this big bastard in his pink shirt and fancy tie thought that it was right to exclude him because "he's not normal". What's not normal is how unaccepting people are. Anyone different. Get rid of them. Anyone with anything wrong with them physically or mentally. Get rid of them. Or stare at them. Or laugh at them. Or all of those things combined.

All this man was doing was TRYING TO BE NORMAL. Trying to have a normal sunny Sunday afternoon and evening. He went for coffee, for some soup, had a chat with a waiter, had some more coffee and some dessert. The same man who tried to exclude him from the restaurant also kindly offered to call the police. Would the police have come? What would this man have said to them if they had? "Oh yes we are trying to have our dinner and this man keeps talking to himself and makes strange faces". Would the police have taken him away and why would they have? A woman who was sitting with the man in the pink shirt, who was I think in her late 50's early 60's kept mimicking the "mad man" (as they called him) every time he re-entered the room after having a cigarette. Mimicking him so that he could see and hear her. They would all laugh, her party. 6 grown adults, laughing and joking openly at a man who couldn't do anything about the way he was, apart from try to be normal, but somehow they didn't think he should be allowed. The "mad man" saw and heard them mimicking and laughing at him and began to cry, and they laughed even more. And then I started to cry. I wanted to throw them out, that table of shites, but held back because I knew if I lost the head there would be no going back.

These were not the only people who commented about we were were "letting this man into the establishment", a few others did too, not everyone but a notable amount.

It's so hard for me to comprehend how people can be so so cruel, so unkind, so inhumane. That man is someone's family, someone's son, he is a human being who deserves to be treated like one, ok he talks to himself and makes strange faces and sometimes he calls you his own name, but he is not doing any harm, he is not shouting or being obnoxious or violent or hurting anyone, and yet these people thought it was perfectly fine to go so far as to make him cry. And they knew they did. And they didn't care.

When did it become a crime to have a mental illness. Why do people feel the need to mock and openly mock anyone who is different. It's bred into some people to stay away from anyone different, who is "not normal", because they are bad, but then what is normal?

It made me so sad today, the absolute cruelty of people who should know better breaks my heart, and it broke it today, totally and utterly. So Richard, if that is in fact your real name, thank you, thank you for crying and then bouncing back, thank you for not leaving when you knew people were uncomfortable with your presence, and thank you always for your custom.