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Nov. 10, 2006 I noticed in my recent stay in Los Angeles, 2002-2003, that more and more wheelchairs are cropping up on the sidewalks and in places of business there. This is made possible by the ever-improving quality of sidewalks, almost universally provided with wheelchair-friendly curbs. Most stores and other establishments are increasingly mindful of making their facilities wheelchair-accessible. The Los Angeles Metro is equipped with elevators, and the subway trains themselves have wide doors that admit wheelchairs. Even many buses have lifting devices for wheelchairs. Nonetheless, it must be a real pain to be handicapped in that way. If you’re fairly well-to-do and can afford to hire attendants, it’s probably tolerable. But if you have to do everything yourself, it must be a miserable existence. And that’s even after you take in consideration the fact that most such handicapped people in the US may be entitled to Social Security disability payments, and if not that, at least welfare. It probably helps, if you cannot afford attendants, as most people cannot, to have relatives to live with or near, who can escort you about at least occasionally if not daily. If you’re a loner, as I would be if ever such a fate befell me, I’d be in a deathly bind, even with disability payments. It would be the end of everything worth living for. From my point of view now, I think I’d seriously consider self-euthanasia at that point. Perhaps, however, if it actually happened, I would rethink my philosophy, and devise a modus vivendi. With nearly two years in South America, I have seen only one or two wheelchairs on the street, and it’s not because South Americans are impervious to incapacitating conditions like that. If you’re in a wheelchair down here, you’re a shut-in. In very few places are the sidewalks wide enough to accommodate a wheel chair, and it would be difficult to find a stretch of more than a block or so in which there are no explicable or inexplicable discontinuities in the sidewalk. For no obvious reason at all, you’ll find a step of four or five inches in mid-block. I’ve tripped quite a few times on these. The pavement is often broken. Driveways don’t have smooth transitions, but instead create little jags and jogs here and there. The curbs are not ramped. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires have subways, but no provision for wheelchairs has been made. Buses, of course, are devoid of wheelchair-jacks. There’s just no way you’re going to get out to the streets if you’re in wheelchair here, unless you have a relative with a van, or something like that. Aside from the wealthy who have attendants, you would have to depend entirely on relatives to look after you, not only to give you some mobility, but also to feed and clothe you, since there are no Social Security disability or welfare checks forthcoming. Young families already in straits trying to feed their own children probably do not look with great joy upon the prospect of caring for a shut-in parent, uncle or aunt. So your alternative is to commit yourself to a public asylum or depend on some kind of church-run shelter. Though I have not seen any of these, I’m sure that you, with me, can imagine how tedious and woebegone an existence you would live in such a place. Sit around all day and watch television, eating three skimpy little meals and sleeping in a dormitory. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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