PATRICIA JOHNSON,
Sir, - Look around the lower saloon of a CIE bus and you will see notices saying, "Please give up this seat if an elderly or disabled person needs it".
And yet, most passengers seem to be oblivious to these. Could it be that they are so keen to cultivate a weird intimacy with CIE upholstery (which, personally, I have never found attractive in that way), that they can't tear themselves from its embrace? Or are they - oh, surely not! - just too selfish to bestir their bottoms? Whatever the reason, elderly and disabled people are too rarely accommodated.
Recently, I tried to offer my place on the bus to a very elderly man who was leaning shakily on two walking sticks. But, within the few seconds that it took me to reach the man, a patently able-bodied teenager had darted down the length of the bus and smugly fastened her buttocks to the seat.
Able-bodied people who invest all their modest brain-power and their measly heart's affection in a bizarre attachment to CIE bus seats must be very sad. Someone should tell them that compassion for fellow humans would be far more rewarding. - Yours, etc,
PATRICIA JOHNSON, Winton Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6