Well this is OT, but I remember when I used to help out at a retirement home I used to go to the supermarket for them. Many had food stamps. So I would be in the checkout line, with two shopping carts full of food, paying for it with food stamps. (we are talking going shopping for 7 to 10 people so it was a lot of food and food stamps.
I got the nastiest comments from people. I was around 25 at the time. No one ever thought that I might be doing something good.
Like I said, Make My Day…
Do you feel lucky? Well do ya’, punk?
Sorry, got a little Dirty Harry there…
No, never been approached, but If I’m actually using my permit it means I’m in miserable pain, so no one in their right mind would probobly approach me. I get this look about me, apparently. You can see it a mile away.
If I were approached we would have a conversation about why you don’t ask others about their medical conditions, and if you see a car that has no permit parked in a spot, that’s the only time you should take action (in the form of alerting the store manager/police). I have no problem with people being annoyed at drivers who park there illegally (ie:no special tags visable). If someone had called the police on me when I went with my mother in law I would not be upset with them at all. I was doing something wrong and I would have taken the consequences (embarassment, ticket, whatever)
But to see people parked in a spot and make a snap judgement on whether or not YOU think they are disabled is just intolerable to me. Makes my blood freaking boil, in fact. And by the way, if you don’t think people can see your dirty looks and hear (collective) your snotty comments- they can. I’ve heard them, they cut very deep and make me feel like shit. If you’re one of these people, stop. It’s just fucking mean.
By the way, can you tell I’m not feeling great today? I have edited out about 30 swear words from this post already. In fact, I’m heading to my health club now, where I will park in the handicapped spot, go in and sit in the hot tub for about half an hour. Maybe I should bring a cane, or try to limp while I go in so no one gets upset. I sure hope that’s OK with everyone. I’d hate to be a bother…
(This note contains sarcasm- please forgive my shitty attitude today.)
Run for the hills, folks! Or you’ll be up to your armpits in martians!
First, forgive my previous post- while it reflects my feelings well, I obviously have some unresolved issues I should not be taking out here. Points are valid, sarcasm is not.
Second, TV said:
So is driving, but if you’re picked up without your license along, you get ticketed. In fairness, I don’t know if the ticket is “cancelled” if you can prove you just forgot it, though. Does anyone know?
I got pulled over once without my license, and they just looked me up on the computer. They didn’t seem to care at all, in fact. No ticket, no warning, no comment. This was in NY. FYI.
I better get me and my shitty attitude out of the pit before I start making enemies- 
Run for the hills, folks! Or you’ll be up to your armpits in martians!
My sister was once accosted by the parking patrol for forgetting to put her placard in the windshield. It was a stupid incident because she came out of the store while they were still writing the ticket. She begged them to let her get her placard out so she could prove it was ok for her to be parked there, but they insisted on giving her the ticket anyway and told her to tell it to a judge. Which she did, and the ticket was dismissed.
I have another complaint that’s not directly related to the OP, but on a tangent… I hate when able-bodied people use the handicapped stall in public restrooms. Now I understand if the other stalls are full, but a lot of people seem to prefer the handicapped stall even when the others are empty. It really galls me to have to wait outside the handicapped stall when the other doors are hanging open. I wish I could remind people when they come out of the stall that they have a choice and I don’t, but again there is the possibility that they’re more disabled than meets the eye. Still, there are some people at work who seems to race me to the handicapped stall. They zip passed me down the hall, duck into the restroom and into that stall. And then I have to wait. Or get on the elevator and try to find an empty handicapped stall on another floor.
People suck.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Zette: I hope I didn’t offend you with anything I wrote. It certainly wasn’t my intention, but if my comments did cause you pain or offense, I owe you an apology. An offense, even if it’s unintentional, is still an offense.
At any rate, I should have checked more before stating an opinion on the ticket/no ticket issue. Working with my customary foggy logic, I was trying to separate the “forgetting” issue from the “right to” issue.
A friend of mine is in a wheelchair; she is paralyzed from the waist down. (Believe me, you are a pussycat compared to her on this issue!) Anyway, she can, will and has chopped people’s heads off for LOOKING like they might even consider thinking that a physical disability implies any less intelligence or responsiblity. If she thought that the TAB’s (temporarily able bodied) were given a heavier punishement for forgetting a required paperwork, she would rip the poor cop, judge and probably bailiff a new one. And this is a woman who could do it, too.
But no matter any of this, I apologize most sincerely if anything I said here caused you distress.
Veb
Run for the hills, folks! Or you’ll be up to your armpits in martians!
I got mad at a former co-worker once who told me a story about how she got tired of the dirty looks given her and her daughter for using handicapped parking spaces. She said her daughter had broken her leg once and actually had to use a wheelchair as a result. The problem is, she didn’t buy a temporary handicapped parking permit. She thought just toting around a wheelchair was entitlement enough to use the spaces and didn’t appreciate it when people tried to tell her otherwise.
I wanted to tell her that, hey, the rest of us got signatures from our doctors and paid our money to park there, what did she think made her and her daughter so special? But I didn’t–I’m just not good with confrontation 
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Now I reallly am hanging my head in shame, not because anyone has been skinky about this, but because I’m finding I’ve operated under a lot of really poor assumptions.
In my work, we regularly certify people to receive home delivered books on tape, based on physical disability. The service is completely free, and it is not questioned. It most certainly can be temporary; some people recovering from surgery, etc. just can’t get out or read conventional books in comfort. So all they have to do is ask, and it’s done. FREE.
It never occured to me that handicapped permits had to PAID for! That is just wrong. Even if it’s an “administrative fee”, isn’t that what the DMV is there to DO? Why should anyone have to pay for that classification? It’s just a modification of the license and plates, which sure aren’t cheap to begin with. That smacks of penalty, and that’s wrong.
As far as the ticket for forgetting the drivers licenses, I was going on anecdotal evidence. (Which we all know is SO reliable. Sigh.) I am triple-check my license, insurance cards, etc. because I’m basically anal. It’s the LAW (drum rolll). To carry that stuff, not to be anal. At least not yet. In Illinois. That I know of.
The thing about the different standards for forgetting the permit came from experience with my friend:
Me: Why are you giving that guy a hard time? He’s just trying to be nice.
Her: Because the %#@ is *(&$## patronzing me, that why!
Me. Oh (said in small voice)
Anyway, it’s reminded to me pin down some facts (so handy!) before expressing “wise” opinions.
Thanks, guys! Learning is what it is all about.
Veb
My sister is handicapped, she has a fake leg and sometimes it is painful to walk on. Her other “real” leg also has problems, and she has been told to not walk on it for too long. But, when she wears her jeans, you can’t tell that anything is wrong with her.
We recently moved out of our native state of California, and I guess the combination of the California plates on my car, and the fact that my sister has purple hair, make people think that she is not entitled to use the handicapped space, even though we always display the placard properly. So far all people do is glare, or make passing comments and then swiftly move on. But my sister swears, if anyone really confronts her and gives her enough time, she will gladly pull of her leg for them. (She loves to threaten to pull of her leg!) I would LOVE to see the look on someone’s face when they see her sans leg! 
I used to work in a small retail store, which only had ONE handicapped space. I was the self-appointed Handicapped Space Monitor. Whenever I saw that someone had parking in the space without a permit, I’d get on the PA system and tell them to move their car somewhere else. I was firm, but polite. My supervisors, I know, always wanted to cringe because I was “making waves”, but how could they stop me? They knew all about my sister, and they knew better than to cross me on this issue. What could they possibly tell me to stop? I knew and they knew that there was no damned way in Hell that they could try to squelch me.
We had a few incidents where customers got pissed off, too. One woman went ballistic after I made my PA announcement to move her car. She yelled that her daughter had a broken leg (the girl did) but yet when asked why didn’t she get a placard then, the woman said she didn’t have to. Her husband was a policeman, apparently. The woman went off the deep end with her ranting and self-righteous indignation. The supervisor on duty that night was a cool person, and quietly said, after this woman had finished railing into me for being so “rude” - “You know, her sister only has ONE LEG and she feels very strongly about this.” The bitch still wouldn’t back down, but did leave.
In California, USA, a handicapped person can park anywhere they want to, 20 minute zones, loading zones, blue zones, Etc. There are only a certain number of blue parking spaces allocated for all of our city. So, need one? Have to take one of the others & make that a regular space.
‘It never occured to me that handicapped permits had to PAID for!
That is just wrong. Even if it’s an “administrative fee”, isn’t that what
the DMV is there to DO? Why should anyone have to pay for that
classification? It’s just a modification of the license and plates, which
sure aren’t cheap to begin with. That smacks of penalty, and that’s
wrong.’
You’d be surprised what handicapped people have to pay for. Visit Disneyland. You have to PAY for the equipment. deaf people often have to pay for their own interpreters [even when the law says they don’t] because cities aren’t caught up with that.