Well, Crap!

Well, Crap!

I was doing laundry at Manna House today.  One of the important parts of that job is checking pants pockets to see if they’re empty, or to empty them of change or cigarettes or papers before putting the pants into the washing machine. 

One pair of paints yielded a pink piece of paper with the heading, “Misdemeanor Citation In Lieu of Continued Custody of Arrested Person.”  The charge on the citation was “Indecent Exposure.”  The description of the offense, “Defendant [insert name] was observed exposing himself while urinating on the outside of gas station…”  The location was “Cleveland and Poplar,” just a few blocks from Manna House. At the bottom of the pink paper was a court date at 201 Poplar.

When I read this I started to wonder.  Is it possible to urinate without exposing oneself?  I also wondered if people know that access to a toilet is quite difficult for persons experiencing homelessness.  I know our bathroom is continuously used from the moment we open until the moment we close.

Businesses don’t like people from the streets using their bathrooms.  Quite often they even have signs saying so, “Bathrooms are for customers only.”  Back in the day the signs would read, “Whites Only.”  Denying access to toilets is one way the powers that be (Paul called them “principalities and powers”) exert dehumanizing control over those that they oppress.  This might also be called the “criminalizing of poverty.”

The underwear of our guests at Manna House also tell this story.  As I sort the laundry of our guests who come in to shower, I see a lot of soiled underwear.  People have crapped in their pants or couldn’t get themselves quite clean because they didn’t have access to a toilet and toilet paper. I’m guessing that doesn’t feel very good, to walk around in soiled underwear.

Jesus said, “I soiled my underwear and you gave me a new pair.”  He also said, “I had to go to the bathroom and you provided me a restroom.”

If you don’t remember those verses check out Matthew 25:31-46.  Ok, I paraphrased a little bit, sort of like “The Message” paraphrases, only this is “The Message from the Streets.”