There’s this lady I know. She was born without a hand. A good old-fashioned birth defect.
Aside from the hand, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. She’s a tank. And since she’s lived with it her whole life, the missing hand isn’t much of a handicap for her. She can do pretty much everything anyone else can do.
So I’m wondering why she has a handicapped parking tag for her car. She says she got it because she can. But why can she? There’s no reason for her to be parked closer to buildings than people with two hands. Her missing hand doesn’t stop her from walking as well as or better than anyone. She’s not on crutches or in a wheelchair. Hell, she doesn’t even have a limp. Her missing hand has affected her ability to walk in absolutely no way. Hell, except for her one arm she’s not even handicapped.
I have no problem with handicapped parking, and even less problem with walking an extra 20 feet in a parking lot to find an open spot, but I do have a problem with just about anyone being classified as qualifying for a handicapped parking tag for just about any reason.
What’s next, handicapped parking for people with migraines? When does it end that we don’t give people preferential treatment for no reason? This handless lady may be taking the spot of someone confined to a wheelchair who might actually benefit from a roomier parking spot closer to a building.
This is what we get in our society where everyone is conditioned to look for an angle and get over, I guess.
Every place I go has fifty million handicapped spaces anyhow. I always have a Himalayan trek to the door from where I have to park.
If it was me, I’d just as soon not be stared at when I get out of my car. My dad put off getting one because it was embarrassing. Finally his breathing got so bad from his heart disease he had to have one. I don’t think he’s going to last until this Christmas, but you never know.
I had a friend of mine who broke her leg. She was having a great deal of difficulty moving around was in pain, but she didn’t want to take the hassle of getting handicapped parking stickers for just a few weeks of discomfort. So she made a big sign about the leg problem, put it on her dashboard and never got a ticket for no handicapped tags when she parked in those spaces.
I think everyone should decide for themselves whether they should use the spaces or not. And everyone else in the parking lot should be able to challenge their decisions. Yesterday I saw a woman who looked perfectly fine use a handicapped space but once she started walking I could see that she was having difficulty breathing.
A sick person should not have to get approval from the state to park in the handicapped space. If you bruise your ankle and are having trouble walking temporarily, by all means, use the space. If you are able to walk, get to stepping like everyone else.
Cham: I could live with your solution, but that would require people to be honest. Because I believe a good number of people are not, I can see all the handicapped spots being filled by people with bogus excuses and folks who really need them not having them available.
There is a store near where I live that has “limited disability” and expectant/new mother parking that requires only honesty to use them. Those spots are always filled. I have a hard time believing there is a bunch of people with injuries and/or new babies in the store at all times.
I have better things to do than challenge people for their reason for using the space.
Some years ago while picking up my youngest from school, I heard angry screaming then saw two parents nearly come to blows in the parking lot over the last handicapped spot. The principal was summoned and the police had to be called. And neither one seemed very disabled. Nothing wrong with their lungs anyway, their raised voices could be heard for half a block. I sincerely hope the people who truly need these spots have access to them, but I see loads of abuse, and human nature being what it is, there are those who could care less about someone else.
fuck that… if you can’t beat em… I always drive my aunt kate’s car to the grocery and mall for the handicapped tags.. and most of the assholes, like me, who are in the handicapped cars in the spaces aren’t even the jokers who have the tags to begin with! So suck it, Hater!
r: You always were one of the classier people I know…
yea man, quit hatin’. If the lady had two hands she could properly show you how to go fuck yourself. Haha! It’s not that hard to get a handicrapper sticker. Bending rules is fun too. I once had a professor who told me that: “There will come a time when you will have to break a very sacred and important rule in life. In order to prepare yourself for this you should bend and/or break several smaller rules along the way.”
yeah, why is this one bothering you? If you were physically handicapped I could understand why you’re raising a stink, but you’re not, so why?
There’s right and there’s wrong. I do some things wrong but I try to do most things right. Especially the easy things, and it cheeses me off when people are absolutely unwilling to do the easy right things.