As I become more and more mobility challenged oh boy am I developing not only a lot of extra empathy for people even more challenged than me but I am also not afraid to let stupid and selfish able-bodied assholes know just how stupid and selfish they are being. I don’t know why. Usually I avoid confrontation like it was Covid, but maybe because this is still relatively new for me I still don’t quite personally identify with being “disabled” so it feels like I’m standing up for others? Whatever. This is what has been happening.

I walk down the street, slowly and painfully hobbling along with my crutches, clearly not walking with any ease of motion. And then… PEOPLE GET IN MY WAY. By this I mean a group of people will be walking up a street and somehow expect me to move over for them… or on one of our many narrow sidewalks here where only one and half people can actually walk abreast, some of them think I’m the one who is going to step out into oncoming traffic to let them by. What the fuck is wrong with these people?? I’m hobbling. I’m using two crutches. Going very slowly. And well, since I’m kinda new at this game, it totally pisses me off because I haven’t yet got to the point of accepting this and, frankly, I don’t plan to.

So what do I do? Well, I simply stand my ground. I’m not moving out of the way for fucking anybody. And the result is, of course, they have to move. Good. They have perfectly functional limbs. I guess I’m also thinking that I am taking a stance for all of us who can’t get around so easily… to make other people aware that they should be more aware. And just basically be polite.

The other issue here is on our narrow one-way streets in the centre, many of which have signs posted saying PRIORITY PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS. For the most part cars and taxis expect people to huddle in doorways to let them pass as there is usually no sidewalk to speak of. Twice this past week this happened to me and I was like… what the fuck is wrong with you?? You’re sitting comfortably in a car, you are coming up a pedestrian prioritised street, you see someone hobbling along on crutches and YOU EXPECT THEM TO PAINFULLY CLIMB ONTO A NARROW CURB AND HUDDLE IN A DOORWAY FOR YOU?? Well fuck that shit. Both times this happened I stood my ground. The cars approached when I was already half-way down the street but they just kept coming even though there were several other people walking in the street (and diving into doorways). Not me. I stood in the middle of the street and motioned that they had to back up to the square (because they shouldn’t have entered the street in the first place if they saw pedestrians). And both times I got so much support from onlookers saying “you tell ’em”, “take your time señora”, “they are the ones in the wrong”… which was quite uplifting.

So expect me to be doing my Ratso Rizzo thing all over town for the foreseeable. I’m walking here!