Misguided Rosa Parks Inspired Activist Refuses to Give Up Bus Seat to Disabled Man

WASHINGTON—A Seattle woman has been arrested today for disregarding national and state law, when she refused to give up her front row bus seat to a man in a wheelchair.  

Jane Cartwright, a 23 year old activist and self-proclaimed Rosa Parks of her generation was fined 50$ yesterday for refusing to obey the common public transportation courtesy that states “the elderly and disabled” have priority to the front seats of the bus.

Although the general consensus from fellow passengers and on-lookers was that the woman was simply acting like a jerk when she refused to move from her seat to allow a man paralyzed from the legs down to board, Ms. Cartwright has described the events as a crime of passion against a prejudice, antiquated law.

“I was tired, I had been on my feet all day working, so I took a seat at the front” Cartwright told the media shortly after being released from jail, “and then I’m just supposed to give it up because some entitled handicapped person who’s been sitting on his ass all day is too lazy to roll his way to the back?”

Despite being clearly wrong on all accounts, Cartwright believes the way society has treated able-bodied citizens such as herself has been highly oppressive and needs to come to an end.

“Why should I have to suffer?” she asked, grasping at straws, “I didn’t ask to be not-handicapped, why should they get all the breaks? Bus seats, parking spots, wheelchair basketball… I mean regular people don’t have an equivalent to that.”

As of yet no one has supported Cartwright in her fight against people suffering with physical disabilities but experts in the field of activism have warned to not rush to judgement too quickly.

“It’s tough these days when you’re in the activist game to find what’s going to be that ‘next big movement’” said Dr. Hugh Maclean, a radical sixties protestor turned stuffy professor, “Ms. Cartwright is at a disadvantage being a white, heterosexual, financially stable woman- there aren’t a lot of real problems for her, it was either this or a war on Frappuccino prices”.

Although a stand against a Starbuck novelty drink surely would have garnered more support, Cartwright is now stuck fighting a battle that will surely never become a national cause.

Nevertheless, she vows to keep her protest going until bus seats at the front are reserved for only the pushiest, laziest people in the world or as she described “what Rosa Parks dreamed of”. Reporters are yet to confirm as to whether Mrs. Parks or the wheelchair she rode later in life, were in fact spinning in her grave. 

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A version of this article appeared in Simon Fraser University's Student Newspaper The Peak on 05/21/2012: http://www.the-peak.ca/2012/05/heathy-able-bodied-woman-refused-to-give-up-bus-seat-to-man-in-wheelchair/