A staff editorial published in the May 21, 2007 edition of The Central Florida Future, the campus newspaper at the University of Central Florida.

A year ago, the city of Orlando outlawed compassion.

Officials passed an ordinance that greatly restricted mass public feedings, an act directly targeted at groups such as Orlando Food Not Bombs, which visits Lake Eola park once a week to serve vegetarian or vegan meals to the large homeless population in that area.

The ordinance prohibits mass feedings within a 2-mile radius of City Hall, when that feeding attracts more than 25 people, including servers and distributors. Groups can also ask to receive a permit to perform a mass public feeding, but cannot receive more than two in a 12-month period.

The law's supporters, such as City Council Commissioner Patty Sheehan, claim that it is part of an effort to battle crime.

Who do they think they're fooling?

The sight of the homeless gathering en masse seems to ruffle many white collars, but the fact is, these people are not coming together to plot world domination. They're here to accept what may be their only decent meal of the week.

Sadly, the city doesn't seem to care. Scratch that; they care more for the poor businessman afraid that the sight of ragged clothes may upset some of their more sensitive customers.

Some cultures praise those who help the poor. Orlando chose a different route and made soup lines a misdemeanor.

Don't be fooled. This law has nothing to do with public safety; it's about keeping the homeless where society wants them to be – in the shadows.

You say we have a homeless problem in Orlando? What homeless? Where?

If we can't see them, we don't have to help them.

Last week [May 9], UCF student and OFNB member Matt Houston was rousted from Lake Eola park by Orlando police when he attempted to feed more than 25 hungry people.

A police cruiser drove slowly into the mass of homeless and OFNB members, scattering them. Houston landed in trouble for placing furniture in the cruiser's path in defiance and is banned from the park for a year.

That's right; he's banned from a public park because he ignorantly believed that it is right to care for those whom society has left for dead.

This isn't the only time OFNB ran afoul of the ordinance. On April 4, Eric Montanez, 21, was arrested when officers counted him feeding 30 homeless. Perhaps, if Montanez would have ended his generosity at 29, the officers would have let him off with a warning, but this daring law breaker handed off that 30th bowl anyway.

After his arrest, Montanez posted $250 bond, and is currently working with OFNB and the ACLU to have the ordinance revoked on the basis that it is unconstitutional.

But there's a bigger issue here. Why is the city of Orlando punishing people for doing the right thing?

Feeding the homeless should be rewarded with applause not handcuffs.

Pardon us for not believing that a 2-mile ban on homeless feedings around City Hall is going to create a magical Sphere of Justice around a notoriously troubled area. Even if a few of the homeless committed a crime, the ordinance wouldn't keep them away. It would just keep the entire population hungry.

But apparently Orlando lives by the old adage of it's better to look good than to feel good.

The city doesn't seem to care that there is a problem with homelessness and malnutrition in Florida. According to the Annual Report on Homelessness Conditions in Florida 2006, 85,907 persons were reported to be homeless.

OFNB realized that a long time ago and decided to fix the problem themselves, but pictures of homeless masses being fed in the city park don't sell postcards as well as flamingos in sunglasses do.

This doesn't need to be an issue of what is constitutional or not; though, that seems to be the best way to get this law off the books. The fact is that this ordinance should never have come into existence on moral grounds.

Food is a right, not a privilege. People need to eat.

The city seems to have fallen under the spell of its own tourism adds: They think that there is enough magic in Orlando to make the homeless disappear. Thankfully, there are enough of us still living in the real world to know that this isn't the case.

Things have to happen. We can't be shackled from doing what our leaders fail to do.