Boycott Greyhound!

My roommate recently took a trip up to Virginia to visit friends, by way of Greyhound. I, personally, have never travelled by bus, least of all Greyhound. Due to my roommate's experience, I don't think I ever will.

For those of you who have never met my roommate, let me tell you something about him. He has a condition that has a really long name and ends with congenita. He was born without the proper muscles in his upper body, and as a result, he cannot use his arms. Now, most people would give up and say "poor me...boo hoo hoo." Not Chris! I have never heard him complain about his condition!

Let me tell you something else about Chris. He is an artist. He writes and paints with his mouth. In fact, he uses his mouth for just about everything. His mouth is his hand. Chris is self-sufficient and does just about anything I do without help.

Well, back to the story. Chris was riding Greyhound. He had four bus drivers on the trip up to Virginia and back. Three out of the four gave him a hard time because he (Chris) had his ticket in his mouth. One bus driver refused (yes, refused!) to take Chris' ticket from him, or hand him a re-boarding pass. Chris is extremely patient with people, so he explained that he was disabled and could not use his hands. Even after this explanation, the bus drivers were extremely rude and the one would still not except his ticket (luckily he was traveling with friends who in turn took the ticket from Chris and handed it to the bus driver).

Now, in the five years I have known Chris, I have never run into a situation where I was out with him and people were rude because he used his mouth. He doesn't even remember a time where people were rude to him because of his disability. However, three of the four Greyhound employees that Chris came in contact with were extremely rude. Makes me wonder what their training and policies against discrimination include.