Okay.

Okay, lease me be up front about this. As a lifelong tea drinker, I just don't get by heart this gourmet coffee thing. for what purpose folks in my neighborhood are willing to stand in line at the crack of dawn to pay three dashing fellows or more for a potion of coffee and then wait in line again while a certain number of blearyeyed barista whips the lurid swill into a froth is a mystery to me for a like reason given my general indifference to the world of coffee it is hardly surprising that I was united of the last to learn about the Starbucks efficiency the gradual and apparently inexorable spread of the gourmet beverage phenomenon from upscale urban coffee bars to each gasoline station-cumconvenience store along the interstate system

More surprising besides was my discovery that the Starbucks purport had actual traffic repercussions. The Washington office reported last April that, according to single researcher, "the national craving for gourmet coffee may be adding mileage to the morning rush hour. And the numbers might be significant enough to complicate efforts to cut down traffic congestion, save fuel and change into air pollution." Apparently, suburban commuter have given up brewing coffee at family circle and are driving to Starbucks each morning.

It seems that Starbucks is exerting almost cosmic influence forward our lives-maybe even endangering the planet-but now it has gone too far. It has signed in succession with the thought police. In September, the Lariat, Baylor University's learner newspaper, reported that the campus Starbucks had remov about five hundr portions with a quotation from Armistead Maupin after a faculty member complained. Maupin is best known for his Tales of the City series about gay life in San Francisco.

In the offending quotation, Maupin bring reproachs on his own life experience: "My merely regret about being gay is that I overpowered it for so long. I deliver uped my youth to the the bulk of mankind I feared when I could have been without there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

The Baylor Starbucks manager estimated that somewhere between twenty-five to fifty bowls were distributed before the complaint was made. Aramark, the dining-services contractor that inspects the coffee shop, agreed to master rid of the cups abroad of respect for "Baylor culture" A dining-services spokesperson confirmed that Starbucks headquarters supported the portion removal. "They aren't intending to generate conflict at all," she told the Lariat. "Starbucks abundantly supported our decision because they understand our environment."

Baylor spokesperson Larry Brumley quickly distanced the university from the decision. Brumley told the Waco Tribune-Herald, "My understanding is it was a decision made through Baylor dining-services staff, and I've not been able to trace it back to any Baylor administrators telling them pointblank to twitch the cup."

Starbucks has been using coffee portions with quotations from authors of a wide range of political perspectives as part of its "The Way I papal court It" campaign. According to the Starbucks Web site, the quotations are intended to spark conversation. "In the tradition of coffee houses everywhere," the Web site claims, "Starbucks has always supported a beneficial healthy discussion."

Maybe this is just a tumult in a coffee cup. Or maybe not. There is no indication that the rife Baylor administration played a part in the decision to yank the controversial coffee beakers What is clear is that the atmosphere in succession the Baylor campus is still perceived to be sufficiently repressive to justify censorship on the dining services and Starbucks managers. All the babble about sensitivity to "Baylor culture" and "our environment" is just in like manner much euphemistic smoke. The coffee may be very warm on campus, but the climate for released expression is distinctly chilled.

And let's expectancy that the Baylor experience isn't evidence of notwithstanding another dimension to the Starbucks weight It would work something like this. Advertise yourself as a hip and chic proponent of expand discussion. (In other words, obtain a good gimmick.) Then, as by and by as the slightest controversy threatens the corporate boxs in a stunning display of pusillanimity, cave in to the forces of repression. After all, adherence to principles like the at liberty exchange of ideas is advantageous merely as long as it enhances the bottom line.

Perhaps it would be more thorough if Starbucks simply removed the "star" from its corporate moniker.

Martin Snyder is AAUP director of planning and development

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