Americans are so determined to help others and others are so determined to take advantage of it!

I was at the ski resort the other day and with all the fresh snow it was rather busy.  After walking from the far end of the parking lot to the resort entrance I came to the handicap parking area.  A car with two young men and a young woman come whipping around and parked in the, right up front, handicap parking.  Now the car did have a handicap placard but the three were anything but handicapped.  I have not been in as good of shape as these three since my early 40’s.  I have no doubt that the placard was intendent for another person but I found it rather rude that the three of them were taking advantage of good parking and abusing the system intended to help those in need.

Now this is not the first time I have seen handicap parking abuse and anyone who is observant would have noticed this kind of mistreatment many times over.  I did have the opportunity to get one myself several years back before my titanium hips.  My doctor offered to sign off on one as I was in constant pain and could not walk without the assistance of a cain or one of my kids shoulders.  Now being a proud man and a rather stubborn one at that, I declined.  Now there was many times It sure would have been nice, but that is not the person I am.  And I would never use such a spot unless I had a passenger in need of it and people who do are lazy and have a deficiency in self-worth.

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are many people who need this, deserve this, and may find life difficult to maintain a degree of independence with out it, and those are the people handicapped parking was intendant for.  Not the overweight lazy person who probably should be required to park in the furthest parking stall to increase the required walking distance to the Twinkies and soda pop.  The same person who will run you over in aisle six or block you from passing in aisle nine as they race around in their store provided cherry red electric motorized shopping cart and stock up on mood pies and diet Coke.  It was also not intendant for 3 adults in the prime of their life at a ski resort intending to spend the day shredding the slopes.  No, it should be saved for Grandpa John or Aunt Bessy and the women and men who served their country with honor and sacrifice.

I did get a ticket, that cost me several hundreds of dollars, once for parking in one.  I was working in a retail store at 2:30am doing a nighttime remodel many hours after the store had closed.  Since my van had all my tools, and I needed to visit it frequently, I parked right at the front door where the blue sign with the white wheelchair was.  Now according to the Oregon cop who gave me that dam ticket, just because there was no way that spot was going to be used in the middle of the night was not just cause to park there.  Now by law I guess he was right, but I think the fact my van had CA tags was the real reason, but I will save that for another blog.  I think placards should be assigned to people not cars and doctors should not hand them out like business cards. They should be saved for people in need and not abused by people who are not.  There are even lawyers who make a living suing small businesses who don’t get it right in the name of ADA.  Again, a topic for another time.

Show some respect and self-worth people and save the parking for people who really need it.  When it’s abused, the worth of the system is devalued.

The World According to Jeff!