When I started reading a NY Times blog post about this blog, People Who Sit In The Disability Seats When I’m Standing On My Crutches, I first thought, I like this guy’s style- it’s like if I were to publicly call out all the assholes who park illegally in handicapped parking spots.  But as I read further, and then actually read the blog, I realized this guy is just an angry jerk who needs to chill out and be glad he’s only temporarily disabled.

Matt Muro was angered when people didn’t give up the priority seats on the subway- labeled “priority seating for persons with disabilities”- when they saw him standing there on crutches he uses due to a stress fracture.  So he started taking pictures of these folks and posting them on his blog with vitriolic titles like “Hi, I’m an Asshole”.

I have so many problems with this I don’t know where to start.  So I’ll start by suggesting you check out the aforementioned “asshole’s” picture here.  He appears to be able-bodied, sure, but there is an open priority seat on each side of him.  So what’s the problem?  What is Mr. Muro complaining about?  The priority seats aren’t like disabled parking spaces- they’re not supposed to be off-limits to able-bodied people at all times- they’re to be vacated if someone needs them.  Two are vacant in the “asshole” picture.  I see no problem here, and no reason to call the poor guy an asshole.

I could go on like this forever.  But I won’t, so here are most of the rest of the reasons I think this guy is full of it:

• Many people have physical disabilities that are not visible.  There are myriad valid medical reasons why someone might need that priority seat that Mr. Muro (or anyone else) can’t see.
• A lot of the people pictured are SLEEPING.  What does he expect them to do, spot his crutches through their see-through eyelids?
• Dude, you gotta advocate for yourself.  If you need the seat, ASK.  Maybe you think the world should revolve around people with disabilities, that the seas should part for us (personally, I don’t; I just want to be treated like the normal person that I am)- but that’s not the case.  Speak up if you want to sit down.

Et cetera.  Basically, give me a break.  And every time Mr. Muro sees someone taking up one of his precious priority seats, he should comfort his poor hurt self with the knowledge that he is only experiencing a tiny fraction of a percent of the adversity that people like me experience all their lives.  Hell, if I could even get into half the subway stations I wanted to, it would make my life a lot easier.  Maybe he should focus his photoblogging efforts on the lack of stations’ accessibility, and put his anger to good use.