To the editor:
My daughter is a paramedic. In their ambulance, she and her boss stopped in a gas station by Summerland to buy coffee and muffins.
Meanwhile, a scuffy, homeless older man entered the shop to get a coffee.
The employee (a girl in her 20s) prompted him if he is going to pay for his coffee before he had reached the coffee machine.
The homeless man kindly answered yes.
Then the employee asked him to pay first before pouring a coffee. The man complied and did pay prior to getting his coffee.
Before leaving the premises, as my daughter witnessed the whole situation, she asked the employee to sell her two hot dogs. When the employee asked her whether whole wheat or white buns she would prefer, my daughter answered that she needed to ask the homeless man.
The employee shouted at the homeless man: “Sir, excuse me, would you like your hot dogs whole wheat or white buns?”
My daughter’s boss was annoyed by the whole issue and asked the employee to call her manager and he explained the whole issue of disrespect and mistreatment.
The manager was so embarrassed and asked his employee not to embarrass him again in front of paramedics.
Then he apologized to the homeless man and offered him free pizza slices.
I hope that every person takes that as an example and thinks twice before mistreating others based on their status whether they are poor or rich.
We are all humans and wealth should not be a reason for discrimination.
These people have their circumstances to end up homeless. If it is up to them, they would rather live in a home and raise a family.
It is good ethics to treat the helpless with mercy.
Dhirgham Murran,
West Kelowna
