ePlaya

by **alienfry** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:17 pm

i totally thought it was going to be a poll, since it's underneath the polls thingy on the home page.

lol.

who's in favor of burners in wheelchairs? i am vehemently opposed.

by **Stranger in a StrangeLand** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:42 pm

Would you mind clarifying that? Are you opposed to people in wheelchairs attending Burning Man?

by **madmatt** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 5:00 pm

alienfry wrote:i totally thought it was going to be a poll, since it's underneath the polls thingy on the home page.

lol.

who's in favor of burners in wheelchairs? i am vehemently opposed.

I hope you meant by that, that you oppose non-disabled burners who think it's cute to cruise around in wheelchairs.

If not, you know where to stuff yourself.

by **madmatt** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 5:05 pm

BTW, in 2002, I was a little bothered seeing non-disabled burners cruising around in wheelchairs (they got up and down), and later that night, I saw a guy in a wheelchair.

I asked him if he was really disabled, and he said yes (I told him why I was asking)

I asked him if it bothered him that non-disabled burners were cruising around in wheelchairs.

He said he couldn't care less.

There you go. I personally don't like it, but am I supposed to more offended by it than the people that I think are being mocked by it?

Also, I think there's definitely a place at BM for people to express their obnoxiousness that they have pent up all year round. The good part is that just about everyone has a laugh at it.

by **Chai Guy** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 5:18 pm

Just a note here.

Sometimes people who have a legitimate need for a wheel chair may not always appear so. My mom is a double amputee, both legs above the knees. When she's wearing her prosthetic legs, it's difficult to tell they aren't real. Sometimes she uses a chair if she is going to be out and about for an extended period of time and will get up and down from the chair for various reasons (like her ass is sore). People have given her shit for parking in the handicapped spaces (even though she has a disabled license plate) because they didn't realize she was a double amputee (she likes to walk and does an amazing job of it).

My point is, please don't go immediately giving people shit because their disability isn't blatantly obvious to you or I.

by **III** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:22 pm

what's wrong with using a wheelchair even if you don't need one?

it's not like you get to cut in line at the cafe, or have larry harvey push you around to see the esplanade.

i've found that (since there used to be one hanging around dpw) that it's kind of nice to have a chair that you can easily move around without having to get up.

maybe there's something i'm missing, though...

by **actiongrl** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:11 pm

>I personally don't like it, but am I supposed to more offended by it than the people that I think are being mocked by it?

I'm not sure how it's a mockery. I've ridden around in a wheelchair before and never intended it to be mockery. It was merely an interesting experience I hadn't tried yet. If anything, maybe it taught me a bit about what it might be like to experience the world from that perspective. More probably it just got me from point a to point b in a novel way.

by **unjonharley** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:55 pm

Like the drunk with a car all junked, calling it a art car. He come up behind Grandfather ( my 84 year old camp mate) and starts yelling (on a pa system): "That's not and art car", "what the hell are you here for". He and I both are regestared disabled form our home state. I can move around quite well at times. Other times I can't get very far. BM's DMV issues a lic. to wheel chairs. I choped my chair up and made an art cart for 03. Am building another for 04. So I ask for a disabled and art cart lable through DMV. Grand farther rides a small three wheel motor bike. Some times I would ride in the back of it in a chair. When I took the motor bike out. I gave rides to tired Burners or people that wanted to get to another point. MS is slowly taking my life apart. So every day I run it to the max. Burning man is a great out let for my febble attemps at art.

by **SheriffHardinCity** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:53 am

i don't really understand what the OriginalPoster was implying. i assume it's that they are opposed to people who use wheelchairs (disabled or not.) if my assumption is correct the least the OP can do is elaborate a little so i can have the satisfaction of tearing them apart for their complete idiocy.

by **Isotopia** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 12:43 pm

BTW, in 2002, I was a little bothered seeing non-disabled burners cruising around in wheelchairs (they got up and down), and later that night, I saw a guy in a wheelchair.

Well rest assured you're gonna be pissing on yourself if we get it together enough to put together the 'Rock 'em, Sock 'em Hawkings' project this year. Either it'll be held on a elevated. circular platform or will be held in ThunderDome. In either case it gonna be a battle royale between Steven Hawking and his nemesis the anti-Steven Hawking.

by **SheriffHardinCity** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:04 pm

cool... can i be the anti-stephen hawking... oh wait, i think i'm already the anti-christopher reeves... can the anti-christorpher reeves battle the anti-stephen hawking???

by **Chai Guy** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:17 pm

Oh yeah, it's gotta be a duel between Christopher Reeves (in full "Superman" regalia) and Stephen Hawking! And of of course you have to program the Stephen Hawking voice thingy to say things like

"You want a piece of me bitch?" and other trash talk!

Simply brilliant idea!

by **madmatt** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:41 pm

Chai Guy wrote:Oh yeah, it's gotta be a duel between Christopher Reeves (in full "Superman" regalia) and Stephen Hawking! And of of course you have to program the Stephen Hawking voice thingy to say things like

"You want a piece of me bitch?" and other trash talk!

Simply brilliant idea!

Chai Guy, your good humor about the wheeliecharie thingie is exemplary, considering your ma. BTW, interesting perspective about her.

PS - the guys I saw w/wheelchairs were REALLY not disabled, besides being totally crippled with alcohol, they got and WERE DANCING ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE is what i meant.

Unjonharley - That's really very touching (not being sarcastic). Finally a good thread.

by **BlueBirdPoof** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:00 pm

madmatt wrote:Chai Guy, your good humor about the wheeliecharie thingie is exemplary, considering your ma. BTW, interesting perspective about her.

Actually, Chai Guy, I've found your posts to be the best on this thread, alnog with Unjon's. I think it comes from actual experience of/with disability rather than just some abstract "rules" made in a vacuum. I've found a lot of other stuff written here to be silly.

I think it's okay for people without wheelchairs to try riding them. Give them a chance to see how people's reactions differ, to see how much room it takes to manipulate, to see how much muscle it takes (if it's not electric.) Of course, I like to think about the "temporarily-abled" designation the self-discribed crips have given us and I belive that prepping ourselves for the inevitable is not a bad thing.

I also just about cheered when I first read the discription of "Hot Wheels" camp.

Somehow, I've been having bad reactions to the implied "other" state of wheelchairedness. It's just another way of being human. An inconvient way, to be sure, and oh the burden of educating people with two fully funtioning legs, but that there's a "sacredness" to wheelchairs and only the properly initiated can paticipate or it's a mockery. . .

by **BlueBirdPoof** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:02 pm

(And as a yellow-shirt, I feel that the member of the medical staff who didn't allow a chair bound person to use the handicapped restroom behind station 3 besmirched the uniform.)

by **aforceforgood** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:16 pm

one time... uh, never mind, you had to be there...

by **BlueBirdPoof** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:28 am

Bringing this thread back up because I liked this article this morning. The book sounds interesting--a convergence of ideas that interest me in the style (personal essays and stories) that has been most compelling to me of late.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 4D9CU1.DTL

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wheelchair article

wheelchair article

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