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Some people shouldn't work with the public.

2005-05-24
12:57 a.m.

Man do I have a case of rage right now, and I've just got to spill it somewhere. I've laid in bed tonight tossing and turning, thinking about this, and maybe getting it out here will help.

Most of you know my brother was involved in an accident last year where he lost his leg (and his wife and the eyesight in one eye, but the leg is what's important today).

Well, he has a prosthesis, and he is wearing it more and more, but he still has to use his wheelchair quite a bit, too.

He also is the owner of an over-the-road truck, for which he has just hired a new driver. His new driver and he went to the highway patrol office in his state today to get some paperwork for the truck changed/established/I don't know what, but they both had to go.

My brother was in therapy this morning all morning, and they wear his behind out in that therapy. Those days he usually wears the leg the rest of the day, but uses his wheelchair for any distance at all. Like he was doing as he went to the highway patrol office this afternoon.

His wheelchair wouldn't fit through a doorway in the office's hallway, but he could see a lady at the desk he'd been told to go to for the necessary paperwork. He called out to the lady at said desk, "My wheelchair won't go through your doorway here," thinking she would get up and come to him.

Do you know what she had the nerve to tell him? "That's not my problem."

I sat stunned as he told me the story on the phone this afternoon, and then made him repeat what she'd said...I couldn't possibly have heard that right. "That's not my problem."

He said he grabbed the doorway to stand up and step in a couple steps while his driver folded his chair enough to get through the doorway, where he then sat back down in it and they proceeded on to this lady's desk, while she watched them.

He said her attitude was very sour, but he was nice to her anyway because he needed her to do/handle/whatever this paperwork that he needed. Then they left, doing the same procedure with the wheelchair back out the doorway.

First of all, it would have been just a decent thing to do, to come to the doorway and help him. He said it was maybe 12 to 15 steps away from her desk. But also, my brother has worked hard to get back what he can of his life. He's working harder in therapy than ever, he never ever lets anybody push him in his wheelchair, he often gets himself his own drinks when we're all there and would be happy to help him. Hell, he's even figured out how to take the garbage out to the big can at my mom's, then gets the big can to the street. Even when we were going up the ramp into Barnes & Noble last time I was home, he insisted on pushing himself. This is not someone who is using his handicap.

And I'm sure his driver would have been happy to walk the paperwork back and forth between them, but he said with that "not my problem" comment, he decided he was going in there however he had to. (Atta Boy!)

I have been in a blinding white rage ever since I talked to him. I can't believe, first of all, that anybody would be so crass. But this lady is a public employee, too, and I just can't believe she treated him so poorly.

I can only wish I had been there with him, but my brother probably would have stopped me from commenting right then. He is all bravado and brags on how tough he is on things that don't matter, but something like this he will handle in his own way, which is really the right way.

First, he was nice to her, but he got her name, and has already partially written a letter to her superior tonight. I suggested he should send a copy to the editor of the local newspaper as well.

I like to think I would have kept it together enough to respond maturely like that, but I'm quite sure I would have been all wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth instead.

He has been through so much, it breaks my heart to think someone would treat him with such indifference and almost disdain. I want to protect him from anything bad ever happening again, but I know I can't.

I think I might would be happy if I could just have about 15 minutes of this lady's time, you know, to sit down with her and tell her his story. Maybe then she would think before she was ever so rude again.

Okay, I think I've talked it all out now. Everybody can go back to their regularly-scheduled programs.

Edited to Add: In response to Fi and Chocolate Chaos's comments here this morning, yes, the building is handicapped-accessible, (I asked that same question), but the room where he had to go is away from the general public area down a long hallway.

And Debby, you're the only one who would know where this is, but it's the Troop B office over on West End in the city.


2 comments so far Fi - 2005-05-24 04:28:16
That's appalling! You have every right to be angry. I'm angry on his behalf. (As a matter of interest, aren't all public buildings obligued, by law, to have disabled access .... or is that just in our nanny state over here?)
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chocolate chaos - 2005-05-24 05:42:23
you want my baseball bat to take with you when you go talk to her? i would have been raising holy hell in that office! and fi is right, that office should be handicapped accessible...
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