Selfishness: The Short Cut to Extinction

What gives people the idea that they are more important than another person?

I have worked in customer service for the past 4 years. In those years I have seen moments that have moved me to tears and moments that have made me think that Natural Selection, should be more picky.

Today I met a woman who should have been taken out by Natural Selection a long time ago.
If she were a pack animal she would not be the smallest, or the slowest, or the weakest. On the contrary, if she was a lioness living in the tall grasses of the Savannah she would be a very strong and very proud cat. She would be the one who hunted the big kill on her own but devoured it herself, leaving nothing for the rest of the pack. This woman would be the beautiful, strong lioness that was shunned from the pride for not contributing anything to the community.
Please understand that in the real world I wish this woman no harm and no bad luck, but I do wish I could have shown her how rude her actions today were.

I work at a theatre. It is a lovely building with 631 seats.
The floor plan is very similar to that of most other playhouses, movie theatres and lecture halls. 3 sections of seating separated by two aisles with all the seats pointed toward a stage, screen or podium.

Seating    /  aisle/   Seating          /  aisle/   Seating

As a person living in Ontario, working in Customer Service, myself and the rest of my co-workers have undergone Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act training.AODA training is, simply put: training about how to assist patrons with disabilities. 

Tonight my theatre hosted a charity event. CHARITY EVENT. <- this is important

This evening a patron, a regular visitor to our facility, walked into the building tonight. Knowing his limitations I assisted him into the auditorium and left him to happily enjoy the performance.The patron is a delightful senior citizen, who is unsteady on his feet and uses two canes to support himself.

At the end of the show I waited for the theatre to clear significantly and then made my way to his seat to assist him out. 

Being unsteady on his feet it took him a great deal of time to move significant distances, but he manages well without assistance; my presence is more of a security blanket than anything. 

As we slowly make our way up the aisle, a woman sitting in the centre of the theatre stands up and approaches the aisle we are currently occupying. 

Politely I asked her "If you want to use this aisle I need you to wait a moment for this gentleman to pass, but feel free to use the other aisle to exit the theatre." 

The response she gave me drained the blood from my face. 

"I can't my jacket is at the back of the theatre." and then proceeds to push past the gentleman I am assisting, nearly knocking him over as she raced away up the aisle. 

I must explain the the rest of her row was empty as was the rest of the theatre- she would have disturbed no one had she walked the 5 meters to the other aisle.

She could have also waited the 30 seconds we needed to pass her row- but instead she barrels past like a bat out of hell to retrieve her `jacket`.  Believe me, it would have been there 30 seconds later. 

Fortunately the patron I was guiding managed to keep his balance and we exited the theatre together without further disruptions.

At the front doors he thanked me for my assistance and we parted ways for the night.

How can people be so selfish? Or is it purely ignorance that makes people look down or ignore on anyone with a limitation or disability? 

If this man had fallen, he would have left the theatre in an ambulance. Obviously that thought did not occur to the woman who almost knocked him over. 

I also know she knew he needed assistance because I explained the situation and she saw both the canes he was using. Did she think they were for show?

Disabilities are everywhere and have many different effects. Most of them are practically invisible. Mental disabilities, physical disabilities, psychological disabilities, from hearing loss to being bound to a wheel chair, blindness to any mental illness we have no idea what has affected the people around us; either directly or indirectly. 

Today a woman disrespected a man with a very visible physical limitation that could have sent him to the hospital. Tomorrow someone else may accidentally disrespect someone with depression that has the potential to have lethal repercussions.

We do not have the right to say that we are better than another human being, or that our goals are any more important than anothers'.

I understand the sentiment "Feed your own mouth before you feed anothers'" but I am glad to say that I do not sympathise.

-B

G-6,619
TToA-52,285
TDotRQ-37,276