> From: Paul Robinson
> The following happened on Monday, March 31, 2008, and I meant to post
> it sooner but I've been busy.
That's OK. I didn't even know this newsgroup
(alt.disability.issues) until I did a sorta weird search in Google
just a few minutes ago, so I'm responding months after you posted.
> ... there were not one, but two people in wheelchairs riding the
> bus. And along the way, a third passenger in a wheelchair got on.
I've never seen that many. As you say there, it's the same here in
Santa Clara County of California, one frequently, two sometimes,
three never.
> The third wheelchair passenger struck up a conversation with a
> (non-handicapped) lady about 5 meters away (maybe 5 or 6 rows
> down) ...
That's actually quite common around here, wheelchair residents
being very chatty with everyone on the bus within earshot. The
drivers tolerate their loudness and verbosity better than they
tolerate equivalent behaviour from anyone else, even other disabled
people who are not in wheelchairs, such as myself (flattened spinal
disk, metatarsalgia, trick knee, need to use a shopping cart as a
"walker" in the store and ride a bycycle whenever I need to travel
more than a quarter mile between bus transfer points or whenever I
need to carry groceries such as one gallon of milk more than fifty
feet).
> and talked her into giving him his number.
That's a typo, right? Why would she give him his own number?
Doesn't he already know his own number?
OK, you meant give him *her* number, right?
Fact not in evidence: It was actually *****her***** phone number,
not a disconnected number she had three years ago so the forwarding
has long expired, not a random number she made up on the spot, not
the number of her boyfriend who lives 10 miles away from her, not
the number of her former boyfriend she dumped and has been "getting
back at" ever since, not the number of the rape hotline in her
town, etc.
Fact in evidence: Lots of gals around here are quite teasy, talking
up guys, flirting with guys, with no intention of ever seeing that
person again. Even if they accidently run into the same guy on the
bus again, they pretend they don't remember talking with him the
previous time. And of course, they don't ever give the victim their
correct phone number nor the number of anyone who knows their
current unlisted number even their former boyfriend doesn't have.
(They *will* give the number of their current boyfriend, just to
make him jealous, and to have that current boyfriend say really
nasty things to the sucker who calls him expecting to talk to her.)
Fact under dispute: YMMV - VA/CA
> I also heard him discover that her occupation was a waitress,
Um, can you spell T E A S E, and F L I R T, very carefully now?
Now write those words one hundred times each on the chalkboard.
Don't you know how waitresses get in the habit of flirting with
*all* their customers, and can't turn it off when they leave work?
> And got her number.
Um, fact not in evidence.
He got **a** number.
Do you rememember what number it was?
> the fact that she gave him her number
> presuming it was her number
There you go! That's a pretty big presumption under the
circumstances. The woman was under pressure *not* to make a big
confrontational scene by denying "her number" to a guy in a
wheelchair. Imagine if she had openly refused and even one other
passenger had then started harassing her about how that's
discriminatory against disabled person, because I bet if he weren't
in a wheelchair you would have given him your number. And then five
other people start chanting BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH at her,
all the way until she is forced to get off the bus to stop hearing
the chanting and take a later bus and be late to work? And one of
the other passengers gets off the bus at the same stop, from the
back door where she doesn't notice, and as soon as the driver has
pulled away he starts harassing her while she's waiting for the
next bus. Or even worse... So to avoid a "scene", and maybe even
physical danger when she gets off the bus, she was pretty much
required to pretend like she was giving her number to him.
> and she didn't seem annoyed by the attention
Can you spell W A I T R E S S ?
Go to the chalk board now. You know what to do how many times.
> so I suspect she wasn't just shining him on
Wanna place a wager on that?
> Something tells me I spent way too much time overemphasizing my
> faults instead of going out and trying to find some woman with whom
> I could have spent some time.
I agree you should try to find somebody to spend time with.
I don't agree there's any chance of success.
> "If the lessons of history teach us anything it is
> that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us."
Jay Leno had something similar tonight:
John Adams was President. Later his son was President.
His son was the smartest President ever.
Presidents Bush prove that history doesn't repeat.
OK, it's not really similar, but still your quote triggered mine.
(Why I came online will be explained in later cross-post to most of
these newsgroups: alt.disability.issues,alt.support.disabled,misc.handicap
regarding <
http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/NewPub/BadWebSites/DiscrimBad.html>)
