To Howard Schulz of Starbucks,

It appears that Starbuck’s, purveyors of coffee and desserts served in cups, has had enough of us and the anti-rights crowd using your stores as a place to get in each other’s business.  Your official policy has been, and as far as I can tell still is, one of neutrality.  If I wanted to carry my gun into your store and not bother anyone else, then you’ve been happy to take my money and give me caffeine.  What’s changed from what I called ‘silent neutrality’ is that now you’d rather that we not bring our guns with us when we patronize your establishment.

To that I say:  OK, but if you’d rather I not come into your store doing something that makes you uncomfortable, then don’t plan on me coming into your store, period.  Would y’all object if an inter-racial couple came into the store, arm in arm?  What about a same-sex couple canoodling on the couch while playing one of your conveniently placed board games?  I honestly don’t care one way or the other about those two situations, but there are people who would be bothered by seeing couples whose composition is not what they approve of.  Some of them might even get vocal and complain to your staff about it.  In turn, some of the other side of the argument might turn their behavior up to 11 just to get under the skin of the people who object.  I tend to call all of those people “jerks” and ignore them, but apparently you find it impossible to do that when it comes to those who want people like me driven from the public eye or those who want to make a public demonstration of their carrying of firearms.

Yeah, I know that some of us were more in-your-face about guns than others, and the same goes for the anti crowd.   And yes, I know that you’re just trying to sell caffeine and sugar and don’t want your private property to become the local shouting ground.  I get it.  Your place, your rules.

But the figleaf of “You can come in with a hogleg on your belt and no-one will challenge you because we’re afraid of asking our employees challenging someone who’s armed” is, to me, the same as saying “We’re not going to tell gay people they can’t come in here, but we’ll politely ask that they act straight when they’re on the premises.”  It’s cowardice to take a stand without really taking a stand, and the silent neutrality I respected before has now become soft hostility.

So, in the future, I won’t be taking myself or my children to Starbucks for a treat.  Honestly, that’s all it’s become over the past few years anyway.  My coffee monkey is currently satisfied with a morning cuppa made on the kitchen counter, and I can buy good coffee beans anywhere.

Hopefully this all blows over and we can all find an equilibrium where coffee shops are a commons to sit and have a quiet moment without people on one side or the other getting too rowdy.  But until you drop your pretense of wanting to take our money but also telling us to stop doing something that makes you feel icky inside, that’s not going to happen.

Sincerely,

Daddy J. Bear

Louisville