Two COMPLETELY unrelated things...

[wheelieterp]

1) Bug's Big Bus AdBenture(tm) was a complete and utter horror. I have been completely insulated from how Disabled people are treated in public. The times I have been in crowds, or out and about, I have mostly always been with other people, and as such, have been shielded and protected.

Today I slid around, terrified, on the bus and my pleas to the driver to help me strap in (I had no idea how to do it, nor could I even reach some of the straps) were completely ignored. Luckily, Portlanders are extremely nice people (except the bus drivers), and someone got me secured after about 10 minutes of me holding on for dear life.

I am humiliated, angry, and feel somewhat defeated. I am sick unto death of feeling like I am always complaining about accessibility issues, and honestly don't think I have feelings of over entitlement, but the willingness to let another human being have such an experience is so far beyond me that I am beginning to think that maybe I need to develop more of an attitude around this. I am starting to get angry here, folks, and I fear it. I am afraid that it will damage my normally sunny disposition, and kind and people-loving ways, and that is a loss I could not handle.

And the second, completely unrelated topic:

2) Seriously, can someone please explain the attraction to Bjork to me? I just don't get it.

Comments

[artistik1.livejournal.com]

Would a back rub help to make you feel even a little better?? Oh and I'm not going to try to explain Bjork to you again...people either lover her or hate her and that's ok.

[dodgingwndshlds.livejournal.com]

But see, that's the thing... I usually totally get music that I don't like may be attractive to other people.. Like, I can totally wrap my mind around some one else being attracted to... say... Poison, or Ratt.... But Bjork... I can't see how anyone could find anything redeeming about it....

And back rub, yes! Totally!!

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

What the hell? Seriously, call the bus company. They need to SECURE you before they drive off, lest your uncontrollable rolling about causes injury to yourself or others. Yes, it takes a minute or two, but that's WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO, and clearly this driver is an ass.

I've seen how people act around the disabled in public, and somehow, when I keep thinking I've seen it all, people just get worse. I've seen the hearing just pretend the deaf aren't in the same room with them ("because they can't hear me, so why bother?") and those in wheelchairs talked to as though they were mentally handicapped ... it's sickening and I've become further jaded by seeing this constantly happen.

The worst? There's a great friend of mine not too far from here (here being Central IL) who's wheelchair-bound, went to a Chinese restauarant not too far from his house, and ended up having a cook come out, GRAB HIS WHEELCHAIR, and wheel him around the room while making MOTOR noises. Seriously, this went on for a good couple of minutes before my friend LOST it. It just makes me wonder: why do people think this is okay?

[dodgingwndshlds.livejournal.com]

I work for a college as an interpreter... My first chair, Dave, who I had for only a few months while Rex was being built for me, had handles. Teachers, in the classroom, while I was interpreting, would actually use the handles to move me if they thought I was in their way... College professors.... Who are supposedly educated, smart people....

It never ceases to amaze me....

[musikub.livejournal.com]

Still, in the past when I've ridden on TriMet, I've seen the drivers make sure that any handicapped passengers are securely in place before they proceed. I strongly suggest you document this with TriMet, I'm certain they will respond.

[auntie-lukers.livejournal.com]

damn hugs from luke, and björk is really good when yr drunk

[altf4ljdrama.livejournal.com]

1. You really should file a report with TriMet about your driver. Yes, you can *soften* the blow perhaps by admitting you were a new transit rider in a chair, since I think a lot of the time transit agencies practice with riders while assessing their level of mobility when qualifying for reduced cost passes, etc. But, I know that drivers are obligated to help strap wheelchair riders in. As far as I know, that is part of the A.D.A.

2. I don't get Bjork either.

dude...

[watchingitburn.livejournal.com]

It's time to be loud (crippled) white trash and complain. Seriously.
I'm not 100% on this, but I'm pretty sure the bus driver has to make sure that the wheelchair is strapped securely before the bus sets in motion. Every time I've been on the bus, the driver spends about 2-5 minutes helping the wheelies in, lifting the chairs to make room, and helping with the straps if needed.
Not only was your driver a total dick (or dickette), what they did was unsafe and possibly illegal. Get together as much information as you can (bus number, stop you go on at, time you got on at, maybe a description of the driver, etc.) and file a complaint with TriMet.

If you get a cash settlement, I would like a hot dog.




As for Bjork -- she's foreign, so she makes white, middle-class America feel cultured for listening to her music.

Except for that video where she's on the flatbed truck, riding through downtown. That song's awesome.

See?
I'm cultured.

[auntie-lukers.livejournal.com]

A further bus thing (and this by no means makes it right or appropriate) is that like here in SF people climb into wheelchairs to make a fuss on the buss and then as soon as the lift beeps them off, get out and walk away looking for more spare change.

This is by no means appropriate, but those of us in PubTransCircles get really really jaded.

But you are fabulous and I'm passing through Portland in my car next week and if you want something other than a wheelchair to sit on you just gimme a CALL baybee!!!!

[artsycub.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry your day didn't go so well. I'm a full believer that bus drivers are required to have at least some hatred towards the world in general, as well as their passengers in order to be employed. I've been yelled at by a driver in NYC simply because I put my Metro Card in the reader the wrong way. My friend, who rides the local bus system on a daily basis, complains repetedly about his experiences, some of which involve not stopping even when prompted to, etc. etc.

I know you might feel like you're complaining about accessibility issues, but I'd report this asshat. He wasn't doing his job, and his superiors need to be informed of that. If you don't it's just going to continue to happen. *hugs*


As for Bjork: I see her as more of an artist than anything else. She's one of the few recording artists who has a contract saying that the studios can't tell her what to do creatively. (Madonna and Prince are 2 others.) Bjork tends to write music that just comes to her.....regardless of whether the words she's saying make sense or not. What she's feeling is apparently more important than the words she uses to describe them. I've heard one of her live performances with an orchestra and choir, and it was amazing. Other times I just have to be in a certain mood to listen to her because I can't do it all the time. She's got some music videos that I think are visually amazing.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Don't you dare speak badly of Bjork!!!!

Ok, I may not quite get her either. But I still love her because she's just Bjork.

[i-maenad.livejournal.com]

That's appalling. It's also appalling that the other riders on that bus didn't clobber the driver.

In a year of daily bus riding in Seattle, half of that on a route that always has two or three wheelies on each trip, I've been extremely impressed by the universal helpfulness of the drivers -- and usually the other passengers.

However, I am well acquainted with the random clueless nastiness one gets to experience merely by traveling by wheel.

My ex was in a wheelchair for the last few years we were together. She had paralysis on her right side, so she never had the upper body strength to wheel herself. We never had the funds for a proper motorized chair for her.

At the time, she weighed nearly 300 pounds and I weighed about 120 heavily tattooed pounds. As you might imagine, we were completely incapable of passing unnoticed by the idiots of the world, especially when I was trying to negotiate her downhill without losing my battle with gravity.

Some people -- a few; one or two -- were assholes with good intentions who just didn't get it. The rest of them? I remain amazed at the lengths to which people will go out of their way to be complete jerks when it would be far less trouble just to ignore us.

There was one time when M pointed out to a fully able gentleman, who had just parked his Cadillac in the only handicapped spot in front of the post office, that we had had to park across the street and make our way a block and a half without curb cuts. The gentleman responded with some statement about our probable retardedness and his infinite superior entitledness. In the ensuing kerfluffle, M somehow managed to deflate the gentleman's tire with her quad cane, oopsie. And then the police came.

[dodgingwndshlds.livejournal.com]

LMAO!!! You said kerfluffle and I love you.

P.S. re Bjork

[i-maenad.livejournal.com]

I'll try to explain Bjork to you if somebody will explain Alanis Morisette to me.

Or any of the whiny-white-boy/-girl genre, really.

Re: P.S. re Bjork

[dodgingwndshlds.livejournal.com]

Come on!!!! You don't see the social importance of writing about one's inner turmoil, nay, one's absolute outrage at being screwed over by music producers and then singing about it in a voice that sounds like Katherine Hepburn having multiple orgasams while on poppers and getting gang banged by Hell's Angels and a few circus clowns?

She must of lost thousands of dollars from her fortune! It's tantamount to the refugees in Darfur being displaced, isn't it? I, for one, need to be educated about this horrible human atrocity... specifically, I need to have it shouted at me in a voice that sounds like a gas powered chainsaw with a bad spark plug.

But Bjork?? She just sounds like a satanic pixie with a brain injury.

Hey! I think you and I should collaborate on some music reviews!
Tee hee

Re: P.S. re Bjork

[i-maenad.livejournal.com]

"[Bjork] just sounds like a satanic pixie with a brain injury."

See? You clearly already understand the appeal of Bjork.

What shall we review first? I have a passle of women-in-prison movies I've actually never seen before on order from Netflix. Imagine the lyrical heights we could rise to if we were to collaborate on reviewing them!

Re: P.S. re Bjork

[dodgingwndshlds.livejournal.com]

Well... The Ruling Reddcubb pointed out that maybe I am not so qualified to opine on music, since I got unreasonably excited when I found, and downloaded, THIS SONG (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-HkQGvut8) from iTunes yesterday.

As for Women in prison movies.. We'd be too much like teenage boys with the key to Mom and Dad's liquor cabinet and the password to the Playboy channel... We'd abuse ourselves into illiteracy. There's no way we could write a cohesive review.

But who cares??!! HOW FUN!

[stomper-pdx.livejournal.com]

Re: Hell bus from hell

I know you aren't someone who likes to stir the pot, but we have local journalist friends that looooove to publish these types of stories on Trimet, and it's the only way that Trimet seems to respond to problems. Remember the bus driver who kicked off the two lesbians for being lesbians?

re: Bjork

You just want her to loan you that swan dress of hers...

*HUGS*

Jason