Adding to My "People Who Need to Be Beaten" List

You know those scooters that some elderly and disabled people use to get around? Apparently the hot new craze is people using them not because they need them but because they're too damn lazy to walk:

On a recent afternoon at Walt Disney World, Dennis Robles was cruising around on an electric "mobility scooter" that the park usually rents out to people with disabilities. Mr. Robles doesn't have a problem walking -- he says he was simply saving up energy for late-night dancing.

"I'm pretty healthy," says the 37-year-old truck driver from Brooklyn, N.Y. "Just lazy, I guess."...

While some companies say they don't limit ridership to disabled people, others actively encourage use to anybody who wants one. The owner of Florida Mobility, a motorized scooter vendor outside Disney World, pitches a $75 rental package by telling customers: "Ride all day and dance at night."

In a word: Gaaaaah. Americans are becoming too lazy to put one foot in front of another. Which, I suppose, means they won't get very far when I beat them to death with my shoes. I really don't have a problem with people who have genuine mobility issues using these scooters -- why would I? People need to get around -- but come on. If you can walk, walk, already. If you do it enough, then you'll have the stamina to walk more. Really.

Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry

This entry has 10 comments: (Add your own)

#10 Comment from princesssaurora
7/22/06 3:11 PM | Permalink

And then people like me who have an actual legitamate disease that could use the help can't get the stupid scooter...

be well,
Dawn

http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/
#9 Comment from jwal24
7/22/06 10:22 AM | Permalink

This is a good topic. My Grandma has a rare lung disease called Alpha One and when she goes to a store (someone has to take her) she has someone push her in her wheelchair because, like the other woman said, she thought that if she was riding it then someone that was worse than her wouldnt be able to. I mean my grandma can walk at home from room to room, but she cant walk for very long in a store. So when I see people just riding them to ride them I just want to walk up to them and push the GO button and run w/ it and run them into sumthing. Then beat them up after they crashed. I mean I know sometimes you cant tell if the person riding it really needs it, but when they'res teenagers riding them around it makes me mad.
*Jen*
#8 Comment from monponsett
7/21/06 9:40 PM | Permalink

And before anyone asks... no, I wasn't sitting in the little child seat at the top, thank you.
#7 Comment from monponsett
7/21/06 9:39 PM | Permalink

I made my husband push me around Stop And Shop in a grocery cart, but I was three sheets to the wind drunk at the time.
#6 Comment from tendernoggle
7/21/06 9:00 PM | Permalink

HI JOHN,
THIS ENTRY OF YOURS HIT HOME....YOU SEE, MY HUSBAND DANNY HAD RHUEMATOID ARTHRITIS, ANKYLOSING SPODYLITIS( WHERE BONE JOINTS FUSE TOGETHER), OSTEO ARTHRITIS, NERVE DAMAGE, AND AORTIC STENOSIS OF THE HEART AND OPEN HEART SURGERY...AND THOUGH I BEGGED HIM TO USE ONE OF THOSE SCOOTERS EACH TIME WE WENT TO A STORE, ETC..HE WOULD REFUSE...SAYING THERE WAS PROBABLY SOMEONE WORSE OFF THAN HE THAT WOULD NEED IT WHILE HE RODE ON IT...HE NEVER RODE ONE...HE THOUGHT OF OTHERS FIRST...HE WENT TO HIS GRAVE IN JAN. OF THIS YEAR, NEVER HAVING GOTTEN ON ONE....FOR SOMEONE TO JUST RIDE ONE BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO FREAKIN LAZY TO WALK JUST GALLS ME...HAND ME YOUR SHOES JOHN AND I WILL BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THEM FOR EVERYTIME MY DANNY LIMPED DOWN THE STORE ISLE.
VERY SINCERELY,
CARLENE NOGGLE

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Adding to My "People Who Need to Be Beaten" List