Thursday, July 02, 2009

Inspiration

First, I want to state that I have nothing against people who truly have a handicap. If you are, or someone you know is, handicapped and need alternative modes of transportation, then, by all means, you or they should be able to use it.

That all said, I now know where the inspiration for the movie Wall-E came from. If you have seen the movie, you will recall that the people on the ship became so lazy that they did nothing for themselves. In fact, they didn't even walk, they simply reclined on motorized vehicles that did everything for them. They pushed buttons and sucked their meals through straws.

I believe they got the inspiration for all these people from Disney World. I say that because while we were there, it seemed that every other person was riding a motorized scooter. Most of these people did not need to be riding in these scooters, in fact, the walking probably would have been very good for them. In fact, when they would get on a bus, they would sit on the scooter until the bus got there. When the driver got off to help the person get on the bus, the person would either stand and let the driver put the scooter on the bus or they would drive it on themselves and then stand. Eight times out of ten, the person had no problems walking onto the bus or to a seat. When they got off, it was the same thing.

At the parks, you would rent a scooter, or a wheelchair, just like you could a scooter. At Hollywood Studios, I took this picture:

I couldn't believe my eyes! After I saw this, I realized why I could barely walk down one of the streets of the park, as the scooters were stretched across 5 wide blocking the path. Sometimes, you would see several together and riding on the laps of some of the drivers were children. Not little children either, but tweens who could walk perfectly fine.

After several rides, we finally realized why so many people rented the scooters and wheelchairs. It's like having your very own Fast Pass. The driver and their family could drive to the front of the line to a special handicapped entrance and get right on the ride.

Now, as I said earlier, if someone truly needs a wheelchair or scooter, then, by all means, let them use it. But, don't encourage people to be lazier than they already are by renting the scooters and wheelchairs on site to anyone willing to pay the money. Maybe to rent one you need a handicapped tag from your car to prove you need it? Who knows. I just know that by the end of the trip, we were referring to the scooters, with riders, as Wall-E.