I'm a little behind the times, but I learned of this stupidity recently and just had to write about it.
Just a Cup
The forms of two turtles jumping from one building to the other in the late hours of a winter night wasn't a common thing, normally they tried to stay warm during this time of the year, but it was nearly Christmas and their mission was one of great importance.
Jasmine tea for Splinter
It may have seemed simple and unimportant to anyone else, but they knew the special momentum would make their father's visit with Master Yoshi in the world of the Utrom memory crystal all the more special.
This night the task of collecting the tea had fallen to Donatello and Raphael, and it hadn't taken long to find a store that stocked it and in the process of waiting for the customers to die down so they could go inside without too much worry of being discovered; the brothers occupied themselves with some people watching.
However it didn't take long before their instincts pointed them in the direction of one particular goon that was eyeing a young woman who had just exited a store with several bags of Christmas presents.
It wasn't hard to see what the moron had planed and so the turtles quietly stalked him from the roofs to insure she got home safely.
Unfortunately their hope that maybe the man would act according to this most sacred holiday and perhaps not do what they had feared was dashed when he suddenly bolted for the woman as she passed an alleyway and pushed her into the darkness.
The sound of her muffled screams spurred the turtles into action and a second later they landed on the pavement to knock the goon out before he could harm her and quickly backed into the darkness again before they were seen.
"Hello?" The woman asked the area nervously, fearfully looking around for any clue as to what had just happened.
Knowing that his rough voice may be a bit too much for her startled nerves; Raph remained quite and let his soft spoken brother do the talking. "It's okay." Donnie informed her kindly, still not showing himself. "Just take your gifts and go home to your family. We won't let anything happen to you."
She seemed to almost smile during her struggle to contain her tears and nodded before gathering her things and walked back out onto the street where she turned back to the darkness and said, "Thank you," before walking off in a hurry.
Raph stayed behind to tie up the attempted trouble maker and call the police while Donnie returned to the rooftops to keep an eye on the woman until she safely reached her home, then doubled back to the store.
Though Raph met him half way about a block away from finally getting Splinter's tea something else caught Donnie's attention and he quietly stopped in his tracks before walking to the edge of the roof to listen to an argument he could hear coming from inside the building.
"What's up?" Raph asked, but his brother quickly put a finger to his lips and he went quiet, turning his ear to listen to the yelling man inside as well.
"This is persecution." The man proclaimed angrily. "What are you trying to do ban Christmas?"
"No sir that's not –" A female voice tried to answer but was soundly interrupted.
"To take Christ and all of his symbols off your cup not only proves that you hate Christmas but that you hate his people." The man continued to scream "And you know what, for that, I hate you." He added before a loud crush could be heard from within the store. "Merry Christmas." He announced before busting through the doors of the Starbucks in a huff and stormed down the street.
"What the hell?" Raph asked in shock, before he and Donnie maneuvered down to an awning that hung over the door and looked through the big windows where they quickly located a woman carefully picking cups and straws off the ground as she struggled to contain her tears, clearly very unset by the man's harsh words.
It wasn't long before the manager arrived on scene to comfort her and tell her that everything would be alright, allowing the turtles to return to the rooftop in a rather zoned out motion.
"I thought Christmas was a Christian holiday?" Raph pointed out.
"It is." Donnie answered simply.
"Well he certainly wasn't actin' very Christ like. What's his problem? What gives him the right ta treat her like that?" Raph argued, turning around as if to find the man and force him to go back and apologize.
"Apparently – the cup." Donnie proclaimed with a little bit of anger himself.
Did that man not realize how many homeless walked the streets right that moment, that there were wars being raged, children dying of hunger? And what about the woman they had just saved from being raped, how many others wouldn't be so lucky?
Raph seemed to agree completely with his silent raging as he too was well aware of the other horrors that lived in the world right now, while this supposedly Christian individual complained about the color of simple coffee cup.
With this said Raph proceed to raise an eye-ridge at the street before turning to Donnie and stated rather truthfully.
"But it's just a cup."
*Face-palm*
Yes!
Somehow this has actually become an issue in the world of today, I couldn't believe it.
Come on people; a simple cup does not justify such madness.
We're better than this.