*stretches*
Sep. 16th, 2005 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
A few randomly related thoughts about this...
First, I'm thinking of the other day. I was on the crowded bus (the one before that hadn't come, or something), and a guy with a cane (it's at the boat, the bus isn't moving yet) makes his way through to the back. Now, at this point I'm not sure what happened. Either nobody offered him a seat in the "YOU MUST GIVE THIS SEAT...." seats at the front (which is wrong, because there's no reason a guy with a cane should have to walk all the way to the back of the bus, that's why those seats are labeled), or he wanted to sit with his friends/family, who were at the back. I didn't know then, and I don't know now.
Anyway, he gets to his friends, and since they have the last seats, he goes "One of you has to get up", which could be rude, but because they're all friends, it's not, and they're laughing, and he sits down. Great, problem solved.
Except that they're sitting in the wheelchair seat. And yes, a guy in a wheelchair has to get on. Now, when the bus driver says this, the people sitting *opposite* the Group with the Guy with the Cane get up, clearly making room for that group to sit down. I see this. Everybody else on the back of the bus sees this. Guy with the Cane doesn't see this, and starts pestering the bus driver to tell the people in the front to let him sit down because "I had three heart attacks".
This is a perfectly good and valid point, and normally I'd say he's completely right. Except that there was a seat for him, and two seats for his friends, right here in the back! Less walking! But he was so busy trying to get the bus driver to help him out that he didn't even see the good intentions of the people who were now edging themselves forward to let him by.
He did eventually notice those seats and sit down, but the whole thing stuck in my mind.
That's just a story. I also have a point about the comments in the link.
A number of people are saying that the pregnant woman didn't deserve the seat because "it's not a disability" and it's not a disability because "that's a choice". (Let's ignore the woman's blatant and uncalled-for rudeness for the purposes of this conversation, okay?)
Disability is defined as not being a choice? Hah. Let's just look it up, shall we? A disability is any physical and/or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities (caring for one’s self, walking, seeing, hearing, and the like)
I've never been pregnant. I never *want* to be pregnant. Babies are parasites? Damn straight. And you're not the only one to think so. You're not even especially witty to say that. Your own *body* thinks that the baby is a parasite.
However, I think I can safely say, even without ever having had the experience, that by the time you're ready to pop, your pregnancy is "substantially limiting one or more of the major life activities". The phrase major life activities means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. Walking? If you can't even reliably *stand* on a *bus* (and I recognize that not all pregnant people go through this), I'd say you've lost a major life activity right there. Notice that the list of "the following aren't disabilities" doesn't include pregnancy.
Nowhere in any of these definitions does the term "choice" come into it. Nobody says "you're disabled unless you specifically chose to be so". That's nonsensical.
Being elderly counts for having the seat, while being pregnant doesn't? Why? Because being pregnant is a "choice" but being elderly is just "in the natural course of things"?
Well, yeah, maybe - but I could just as easily say that all those old folks and cripples should kill themselves so that they wouldn't be a burden on society, that by chosing to stay alive and take up seats on the bus, they were showing themselves to be unworthy of special attention. I'd throw up a little as I said it, because *man* is that offensive, but you just *know* there's people out there who think that way.
And logically, what *is* the difference between the old or disabled person who actually does have a miserable life, but is morally opposed to suicide, and the girl who was raped and is morally opposed to abortion? Not much, I'd say. (Not that most old or disabled people *do* have miserable lives, but I can't make the point with happy people who wouldn't contemplate suicide anyway because, y'know, they're happy.)
Lots of people there talking, but none of them really know what they're saying. Tres annoying.
First, I'm thinking of the other day. I was on the crowded bus (the one before that hadn't come, or something), and a guy with a cane (it's at the boat, the bus isn't moving yet) makes his way through to the back. Now, at this point I'm not sure what happened. Either nobody offered him a seat in the "YOU MUST GIVE THIS SEAT...." seats at the front (which is wrong, because there's no reason a guy with a cane should have to walk all the way to the back of the bus, that's why those seats are labeled), or he wanted to sit with his friends/family, who were at the back. I didn't know then, and I don't know now.
Anyway, he gets to his friends, and since they have the last seats, he goes "One of you has to get up", which could be rude, but because they're all friends, it's not, and they're laughing, and he sits down. Great, problem solved.
Except that they're sitting in the wheelchair seat. And yes, a guy in a wheelchair has to get on. Now, when the bus driver says this, the people sitting *opposite* the Group with the Guy with the Cane get up, clearly making room for that group to sit down. I see this. Everybody else on the back of the bus sees this. Guy with the Cane doesn't see this, and starts pestering the bus driver to tell the people in the front to let him sit down because "I had three heart attacks".
This is a perfectly good and valid point, and normally I'd say he's completely right. Except that there was a seat for him, and two seats for his friends, right here in the back! Less walking! But he was so busy trying to get the bus driver to help him out that he didn't even see the good intentions of the people who were now edging themselves forward to let him by.
He did eventually notice those seats and sit down, but the whole thing stuck in my mind.
That's just a story. I also have a point about the comments in the link.
A number of people are saying that the pregnant woman didn't deserve the seat because "it's not a disability" and it's not a disability because "that's a choice". (Let's ignore the woman's blatant and uncalled-for rudeness for the purposes of this conversation, okay?)
Disability is defined as not being a choice? Hah. Let's just look it up, shall we? A disability is any physical and/or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities (caring for one’s self, walking, seeing, hearing, and the like)
I've never been pregnant. I never *want* to be pregnant. Babies are parasites? Damn straight. And you're not the only one to think so. You're not even especially witty to say that. Your own *body* thinks that the baby is a parasite.
However, I think I can safely say, even without ever having had the experience, that by the time you're ready to pop, your pregnancy is "substantially limiting one or more of the major life activities". The phrase major life activities means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. Walking? If you can't even reliably *stand* on a *bus* (and I recognize that not all pregnant people go through this), I'd say you've lost a major life activity right there. Notice that the list of "the following aren't disabilities" doesn't include pregnancy.
Nowhere in any of these definitions does the term "choice" come into it. Nobody says "you're disabled unless you specifically chose to be so". That's nonsensical.
Being elderly counts for having the seat, while being pregnant doesn't? Why? Because being pregnant is a "choice" but being elderly is just "in the natural course of things"?
Well, yeah, maybe - but I could just as easily say that all those old folks and cripples should kill themselves so that they wouldn't be a burden on society, that by chosing to stay alive and take up seats on the bus, they were showing themselves to be unworthy of special attention. I'd throw up a little as I said it, because *man* is that offensive, but you just *know* there's people out there who think that way.
And logically, what *is* the difference between the old or disabled person who actually does have a miserable life, but is morally opposed to suicide, and the girl who was raped and is morally opposed to abortion? Not much, I'd say. (Not that most old or disabled people *do* have miserable lives, but I can't make the point with happy people who wouldn't contemplate suicide anyway because, y'know, they're happy.)
Lots of people there talking, but none of them really know what they're saying. Tres annoying.
