oh hell no

Someone just told me that wanting to go through the front door is ELITIST. Will snarl more when back home but omg

(ETA: this was posted by phone [as is anything with a not-pacific-time timestamp that is very short and also friendslocked]; I have edited to the correct date and security level, but elaboration will be in the next entry.)

Gyah; or, elaboration of previous entry

There is a bit of backstory to this; let me explain. No, there is too much, let me sum up:

( teal deer: we need a ramp to the front entrance )

So I show up for the between-services socialization time (which has COFFEE. okay, church coffee, so it's not real coffee, but whatever, it's still caffeinated, I think), and the first person to talk to me is this little old lady who, having been to the first service and therefore heard the presentation, launched into the following arguments:

1) It is fiscally irresponsible for us to be doing new construction projects when we're also having to cut staff because of budget issues. (which is a fair point, if you aren't aware, as the church leadership is, that there are stored funds /earmarked for projects like this/, so building the ramp would not be a detriment to the budget, nor would not building it help the budget; plus which, we aren't necessarily going to build it immediately, we're just trying to get the fucking /permission/.)

If this had been her only argument, I could have pointed that out. However, she slid promptly into:

2) Wanting to get in the front door is "elitist", especially when there's a perfectly serviceable ramp on the side; and,

3) She is perfectly able-bodied and she uses the side entrance, either implying or stating outright (I can't remember) that going in the front is some sort of luxury; and,

4) It's not like going in the front door is more sacred anyway.

...

Now, I don't do confrontations well, partly because of my personality and partly because I've been trained that the socially acceptable thing to do is to smile and make nice. Also, I was /completely in shock/ that anyone would use those arguments /directly to someone in a wheelchair/. So I didn't deal well with it. I kind of mumbled some sort of "well, it's not quite like that" and then escaped as quickly as I could.

(And, once I got over the shock, did the phone post of omgwtfness.)

I of course had the five-minutes-too-late comeback of wanting to point out that she /had a choice/ as to which entrance to use, and the fact that she chose the one over the other does not mean that people who are /forced to use that/ should not have the same choice she does. And the only-in-my-head (-and-on-my-journal) retort of how the fuck do you dare even THINK something like that, let alone SAY IT, without any idea of HOW FUCKING HATEFUL AND ABLEIST IT IS.

*stabs things*