The shelter boots us out at 5:45 a.m. daily. You must take all your belongings with you and cannot come back until 2:30. Until February 2013, my custom on non-work days was to go to Dunkin’ Donuts to pray, drink coffee and use the bathroom, until the library would open at 10:00 and I could go online. Then the temp agency closed down, and I could no longer afford Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and so began going to McDonald’s instead. Some days I would arrive at Dunkin’ Donuts befor

This thinking goes back to 1973. I was a senior in high school, running an errand in the family car. I must have been listening to WKSU. This 5- or 15-minute segment came on. A female spokesperson for the ACLU said that, under the compulsory school attendance law, a minor can only be in one of two places: a school, or a penal facility. In her view there was no real difference. I was an honors student and deeply convicted that education is the answer to poverty. Thus her

Monday 09/30/13 Yesterday, as usual, after church Vladimir and I went to the McDonald’s at Baltimore and Light Streets, to drink coffee and study. Time came when both of us needed to use the bathroom. The floor outside was flooded, and a sign on the door said, “Out of order. Sorry. 😦 ” It remains out of service today. I made arrangements to use the employees’ restroom at a nearby convenience store. This particular McDonald’s serves what may be called a “special” population.