Coffee, Religion, Health, and sooooooo much more !
Monday, August 29, 2005 - Page updated at 09:54 AM
Tempest brews over quotes on Starbucks cups
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter
THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Critics of some of the quotes on Starbucks' cups want balance.
Starbucks: The Way I See It
Talk About It: What are your thoughts on Starbucks' "thoughts"
Starbucks says it was hoping to inspire old-fashioned coffee-house conversations when it introduced a campaign this year featuring the words of notable Americans on its coffee cups.
But at least a few of those words are sparking more discord than discussion.
A national Christian women's organization is accusing the Seattle-based coffee maker of promoting a homosexual agenda because of a quote by author Armistead Maupin, whose "Tales of the City" chronicled San Francisco's homosexual community in the 1970s and 1980s.
Maupin's quote — one of several dozen in "The Way I See It" promotion — says his only regret about being gay is that he repressed it for so long.
"I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."
Concerned Women for America, which promotes itself as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women and boasts 8,700 supporters in Washington, says most of those quoted on the coffee cups are liberal.
The group believes corporations have a responsibility to reflect the diversity of their customers by taking a balanced approach — or staying out of divisive social issues altogether.
And while the group is not calling for a boycott, its position nonetheless raises questions about what role — if any — corporations should take on potentially sensitive matters, especially at a time when the nation is divided, largely along religious lines, on issues such as gay rights.
The way they see it
A sampling of contributions to Starbucks' "The Way I See It" promotion
Michael Medved, radio talk-show host "Americans spend an average of 29 hours a week watching television ... which means in a typical life span we devote 13 uninterrupted years to our TV sets! ... Cutting down just an hour a day would provide extra years of life — for music and family, exercise and reading, conversation and coffee."
Rita Golden Gelman, author, "Tales of a Female Nomad" ... "Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises."
Alice Randall, novelist and first black woman to write a No. 1 country song "Mother-love is not inevitable. The good mother is a great artist, ever creating beauty out of chaos."
Erykah Badu, musician "The wise healer endures the pain. Cry. Tears bring joy."
Nikki Giovanni, poet "Hot allusions. Metaphors over easy. Side order of rhythm. Message: If you want to be a poet you've got
to eat right."
Jonah Goldberg, editor, National Review Online "Everywhere, unthinking mobs of 'independent thinkers' wield tired cliches like cudgels, pummeling those who dare question 'enlightened' dogma. ... Cliches begin arguments, they don't settle them."
J.A. Jance, crime novelist "When I began writing, the words that inspired me were these: 'A writer is someone who has written today.' If you want to be a writer, what's stopping you?"
Source: Starbucks
"Corporations have deeper pockets and therefore more influence than individuals do," said Maureen Richardson, state director of Concerned Women for America of Washington.
"I think it's wiser for them to stay out of these issues so that they don't offend conservatives and people of faith."
To these companies, she says: "If you want my money, support some of my causes."
But experts say that on controversial issues, no company can please all its customers all the time. Corporations, they say, need to pick their battles, staking out a position on issues they believe to be just.
"There are many religious-based social issues that are so hard for society to address right now — things like abortion and capital punishment — they're better left for another time," said Leo Hindery, author of "It Takes a CEO: Leading with Integrity."
"But there are a couple of places where it is clear to me that there should be no ambiguity of corporate responsibility — the environment and civil rights," Hindery said. "As a corporation, you cannot let the desire for unanimity override your obligation for fairness."
"The Way I See It" campaign does not set out to take a political stand but rather to encourage discourse, Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff said.
"If you think back to the history of the old coffee houses, before the Internet, these were places to converse," she said. "That's part of what the coffee culture has been for a century or more."
Lincoff said the company does not characterize the personalities quoted on its coffee cups as liberal or conservative, but rather as a diverse group of artists, musicians, educators, activists and athletes.
Among them: actor Quincy Jones, New Age author and alternative-medicine doctor Deepak Chopra, radio host and film critic Michael Medved, rap artist Chuck D and Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan.
The coffee company won't be pulling the Maupin quote — or any other — from the campaign, but in fact will expand it to feature quotes from regular customers.
"Embracing diversity and treating people with dignity is one of the guiding principles of our corporation," Lincoff said.
Richardson, of the women's organization, cites possible support by Starbucks for pro-life clinics and the Boy Scouts of America as ways the company might offset its support of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and gay pride.
But Starbucks spokeswoman Lara Wyss said decisions about sponsoring gay-pride events and other causes are made at the store or regional level, not the corporate level. And while Starbucks matches employee contributions to charities such as Planned Parenthood, Wyss said, it doesn't make outright corporate contributions to such groups.
Other corporations have also drawn controversy over sensitive topics.
Last spring, Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, threatened to boycott Microsoft if it didn't back off its support of anti-discrimination legislation for gays here in Washington.
Microsoft withdrew, but said it had decided before Hutcherson issued his threat.
In Oregon last month, Nike withstood opposition and an e-mail campaign organized by a Christian organization over Nike's support of legislation that would have allowed civil unions and banned discrimination against gays.
Both measures passed the Senate but did not make it to the House for a vote.
And for more than two decades now, members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which advocates for the separation of state and church, said they have complained to Alaska Airlines about prayer cards the company distributes with in-flight meals.
The airline said it has been offering the cards for 30 years and has received positive responses along with complaints. Passengers are free to give the cards back or turn them over if they don't want them, the carrier said.
John Hoover, a national business consultant and author who has advised such companies as IBM, Delta Air Lines and Boeing on the art of confrontation, said, "It's not incumbent on corporations to operate with balance" as Richardson suggests.
"But when they stand by their conscience, they must be willing to accept the consequences."
Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002455480_starbucks29m.html
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Java Joy: Study Touts Coffee's Benefits
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 28, 2005; 7:08 PM
WASHINGTON -- When the Ink Spots sang "I love the java jive and it loves me" in 1940, they could not have known how right they were. Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.
Of course, too much coffee can make people jittery and even raise cholesterol levels, so food experts stress moderation.
The findings by Joe A. Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, give a healthy boost to the warming beverage.
"The point is, people are getting the most antioxidants from beverages, as opposed to what you might think," Vinson said in a telephone interview.
Antioxidants, which are thought to help battle cancer and provide other health benefits, are abundant in grains, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables.
to read the entire article go to
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Last Updated: Monday, 16 May, 2005, 10:56 GMT 11:56 UK
Tales from the coffee shop
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine
A new campaign hopes coffee shops will be the vehicle for community action, in a project encouraging people to meet and tackle local problems. But the precedent for this was set 300 years ago, when coffee houses were places of intellect, scientific discovery and debate.
It may seem like there's a Starbucks on every High Street, but Britain is still regarded as home of the pint and the cup of tea.
Yet it's coffee that a new campaign hopes will encourage people to get together locally to do something about issues facing their communities. BBC iCan and the Royal Society of Arts have launched the Coffee Shop Challenge, with public events around the country to mark it.
This choice of venue may have been made with an informed glance at the past, because although the names Costa, Caffe Nero and Starbucks have made coffee shops more visible in the past decade, the coffee house has played a vital role in the nation's social history.
Coffee was first introduced to England in 1610 and the first coffee houses were in Oxford in 1650 before spreading to London.
The arrival of a coffee house culture, where party politics, Whigs against Tories, began to be played out, marks the real start of informed public opinion
Andrew Marr
BBC political editor
This mirrored a new culture that was developing across European cities like Paris, Venice and Amsterdam. By 1663, there were 82 in London, rising to more than 500 by 1700.
Entry to London's coffee houses cost a penny and they became a hotbed of ideas shared between writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. They discussed news and spread it, with the larger coffee houses publishing their own newsletters.
In his book My Trade, Andrew Marr says the country's first newspapers, in the 1700s, were kept in coffee houses and read out loud.
"The arrival of a coffee house culture, where party politics, Whigs against Tories, began to be played out, marks the real start of informed public opinion. And for public opinion there must be journalists too," he writes.
Genteel only
Coffee houses offered an antidote to the rowdy gin and beer houses, both in décor and in atmosphere. They had bookshelves, mirrors and good furniture, and the mood was calm and disciplined.
The popularity of coffee was partly due to the demand of the new middle class, the clerks and merchants who needed their brains, rather than their limbs, to be alert.
Coffee originated in Ethiopia
But it was expensive, which meant it was only the genteel and educated who were visitors, says Professor Allan Chapman, a historian at Oxford University.
"When it said on the door 'Open to all', it meant 'open to all like us'. If you were doing back-breaking work in the dockyards, you didn't want a coffee, you wanted a few pints of very strong ale."
Different professions became associated with coffee houses in particular areas. Will's in Covent Garden was popular for the literary-minded such as John Dryden, who regularly led a discussion of the latest poems. Westminster had the politicians and Lincoln's Inn the lawyers.
Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke held a series of coffee house meetings to discuss the motion of the Earth, and the first time the notion of flying to the moon was mooted was by Dr John Wilkins over coffee, says Professor Chapman.
Sleaze
The intellectual strength of this scene also contributed to its reputation for political dissent, and King Charles II tried and failed in 1675 to thwart their power by closing or levying fees on the houses.
But the decline of the coffee house was well under way by the 19th Century, when many shed their open door policy and turned into gentlemen's clubs serving tea, coffee and alcohol. And their role as a communication centre was eclipsed by an improved press, transport and postal system.
In the sanitised, lactified form of the branded chain, the coffee house is no longer oppositional, rebellious and dissident
Markman Ellis
Author
The coffee houses that remained took on a slightly sleazy nature, associated with gambling and prostitution and characterised in the novels of Dickens and Trollope, says Professor Chapman. Mass production, driven by the East India Company, also meant swigs of coffee could be bought at street stalls and tea could be drank at home.
Long before modern coffee shops arrived, there were popular chains such as Lyons Corner Houses which thrived in the inter-war period, then the classic Italian-run Formica cafes emerged in the 1950s.
But in the past 10 years, there has been an explosion of coffee shops on the High Street. Despite the success of Starbucks, Costa and others, commentators say the unique atmosphere of the 17th Century houses is gone.
"In the sanitised, lactified form of the branded chain, the coffee-house is no longer oppositional, rebellious and dissident. This is their profit, but our loss," says Markman Ellis, in his book The Coffee House: A Cultural History.
Organisers of the Coffee House Challenge hope the passionate debate of old, at least, will be reignited.
source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4550669.stm
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