Proud of their Prejudice

I had a right pair of ignorant fools on my bus yesterday.

Both were apparently parents, if the kid and shopping-laden push-chairs were anything to go by.

As you can see from the photo, the WHEELCHAIR bay is clearly marked as such. It is not a pram bay, nor a pushchair bay. It is a wheelchair bay.

The signage clearly states that wheelchairs have priority over prams and pushchairs (or "Baby Buggies" as they are apparently called now. Another Twee Americanism hits the English Language. Ho hum.).

So, we get to a stop where a wheelchair user is waiting to board, and I've a fairly crowded bus to begin with anyhow, so I ask the push-chair owners to please fold their pushchairs so that the wheelchair user can board and travel. They feign ignorance of what I'm asking. So I ask again. One of them hauls their push chair into the corridor - not allowed, it's a safety hazard - and states that she'll put it back behind the wheelchair. No, that's not going to work, I tell her: The wheelchair user MUST have room to get herself out again without hindrance and unaided. They start to argue the toss with me. At this point, I'm ready about to leap out the cab and eject both these ignorant cows out of sheer bloody mindedness, when the wheelchair user, who'd been observing, calls to "forget them, I'll get the next one, and thanks anyhow". The "next one" being a different route, which takes twice as long to get to the town centre.

While the young woman in the wheelchair undoubtedly took a pragmatic and long-suffering view to all this, I frankly don't see why she had to, and was thoroughly disgusted at these individuals masquerading as Humans with Children. In my view, they ought to have been thoroughly ashamed of themselves and their outlandishly selfish, prejudiced behaviour, and told them "I hope you're proud of being so damn prejudiced".

Please, let them complain. With the aid of the video evidence (CCTV footage can be sooooo useful sometimes), I'll (verbally) whack 'em back to the basics of human decency and consideration so fast, it'll make the hair on their heads turn prematurely grey and fall out and then some.

 Now, you might think that there aren't proper signs for this. Wrong. Look right.

And, as if THAT sign isn't enough, there's another right beside it...



Frankly, I've just about had it with ignorant, selfish, half-witted, moronic, arrogant twits like this (and that's mild, compared to what I'd REALLY like to be saying about them. Obscenity laws over here being what they are, I'll have to leave it to the above). The good news is that the other passengers were of a more decent nature, and let these two ***** know what they thought of them, which cheered me right up again *insert massive cheesy grin here*

Oh yeah - these two women, both black, were most effectively summed up by a massive black guy: "You're both prejudiced, you know that? You make me ashamed to be black!"

It was such a poignant and effective comment, bellowed at full tilt, that it stuck in the mind. It also shut everyone on the bus right up, just like that. I never had such a peaceful ride into the town centre for ages!

Problem is, there are many more like those two, from all colours of the spectrum.

And they seem to think that they have a right to be that way, as if the disabled don't matter.

Well, we (and, in fact, half the rest of the world) fought a war over a similar issue back in the 1940s. You may remember what it started with: One man, targeting minorities in his own country (the disabled, the immigrants, and a religion, to name but a few) then other countries, until a world war ensued. We call that "Ethnic Cleansing" these days, and it tends to result in War Crimes Trials in The Hague.

This is WHY we have laws to protect and aid the disadvantaged.

And Wheelchair bays on buses.

So, next time you see an ignorant git with a pushchair denying, in a similar manner, a wheelchair user travel, please, lend an oar. Ask them WHY they're so damn prejudiced.

I guarantee, it'll make waves, but we might actually learn how these small-minded selfish and prejudiced gits think - and eventually, who knows, maybe, just maybe, they'll learn to be a bit more considerate to others?