Posted on 08/20/2007 7:41:24 AM PDT by Between the Lines
OPINION, August 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Do you know the fine for using someone else's handicapped parking permit is $300?" "That parking spot is saved for the disabled! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Nearly everyone with an invisible illness has been told, "You don't look disabled to me!" One of my friends replied, "Well, you don't look stupid to me." I just bite my lip to try to prevent the tears from forming, broken-hearted that I appear to be deceptive, when I would do anything to give back this parking perk that I use on a rare occasion.
As I circle the parking lot a fourth time on this day I hope for a spot to open up within two-hundred yards of the store, but there is nothing remotely close at this bustling superstore where I need to buy my prescriptions and milk for my toddler. My rheumatoid arthritis is flaring badly, causing extra fluid in my knees to dislocate pieces of loose bones. Every step is painful and unpredictable.
Finally I sigh in resignation and pull into the farthest "blue parking spot." I reach for the placard--the one that has a bold white symbol of a wheelchair--and no, I don't have a wheelchair--yet. So after fifteen years of having this "privilege" at my disposal I still warily scan the area before reluctantly dangling the placard from the rear view mirror. Is there anyone watching, wondering, or waiting, ready to confront me?
I've had scathing notes left on my windshield and many people, empowered by television exposés, have approached me with their opinions. Judgmental expressions and whispers sting just as much. My husband and I adopted a baby and when I would get my child of the car I would avoid eye contact with onlookers because I could hear their whispers of, "She's not disabled! Or--if she is--she has no right to have a child!"
Nearly 1 in 2 Americans (133 million) live with a chronic illness. It could be diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis, fibromyalgia or even chronic back pain. Many illnesses make walking long distances impossible because of limited lung capacity, physical pain, or unpredictable numbness in the legs. According to statistics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, about 96% of these illnesses are invisible. There is no sign of the illness existing, nor the use of an assistive device like a cane or a wheelchair.
I began National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week in 2002, which is held this year Sept 10-16, 2007, after witnessing thousands of people who had frustrations, fears, loneliness, and bitterness, about feeling invalidated. One's illness, age, diagnosis, or level of disease degeneration, doesn't change the emotional pain.
Strangers and loved ones alike doubt the severity of our illness or even the diagnosis. We've heard, "You look so good! You must be feeling better." But we don't feel better. We just bought some fake tan in a bottle and pasted on a smile.
National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is a time to acknowledge that invisible illness is more prevalent than we'd imagine and everyone--both those who are healthy and ill--can make a difference by encouraging someone with an invisible illness, rather than tearing someone down.
Are those parking spots painted blue because they give so many people the blues? That small area of square footage is a breeding ground for many frustrations as we are forced to defend our illness and character to total strangers. I'd gladly trade in my placard indefinitely for just a week of having my old body back when I could run, sit on the floor, or even hold a fork without tendons popping out of place.
I anticipate the day when a nationally designated system is formed. Texas law states that blue placards are for those who use assistive devices; red permits are for people with a "condition that impairs mobility." In other states, red symbolizes six months of disability and blue is permanent. It's confusing! And for one with invisible illness, the wheelchair symbol discredits both our physical pain and--in the eyes of others--our reputation. Until then, we rely on Invisible Illness Week bumper stickers.
The next time you see a healthy looking man loading groceries into his car--parked in the "blue spot"--don't glare. Stop and offer to help him, or just smile nicely, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Seventy percent of suicides have uncontrollable physical pain as a factor. Your smile may save his life. At the least, it will astonish him, perhaps providing him with genuine encouragement he hasn't felt for months.
Home depot is pretty bad about the excessive number of spots. Walmart’s are always full to the brim.
I always parked in the closest to the door, because he was afraid that someone might try to attack him if we were further out in the lot.
I never had a moment of guilt.
I went to Bangkok to see a soccer match but it was a Thai game.
The next time that you get CHF drop me a line about parking.
>>Thailand?<<
First coffee spew of the morning!
Ditto that! Here's a thread for ya:
I went to perform an abortion in the former Soviet Union, but then I discovered the Czech was already cancelled.
when I was on my bike, I parked legally in a HC spot in the local strip mall. It was like seven am on a sunday, so there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of activity.
some guy went up to me threatening to call the cops and have me arrested, called me all sorts of bad names, etc. I told him to go right ahead and that either I was going downtown foro illegally parking (which I wasn’t), or HE was going downtown for Breach of PEace. I kindly offered to wait with him, but he shuffled off.
BTW: I showed him the HC plate, and he pronounced it a fake. Everybody knows that motorcycles cannnot be handicapped!
hopefully an appreciation that everything is not what it seems. perhaps that ‘normal’ person has pain that you cannot see. maybe you’ll think about that next time before jumping to conclusions.
if more people thought first, there would be less harrassment of the disabled.
What would that accomplish? The particular disability is nobody's business.
Print the handicapped tags with the car's license plate number on it. That would keep people from borrowing others' tags. Problem solved.
He went into a rage, pulled up his shirt to show surgery scars, did that little “In your face” dance and started screaming about how he was disabled.
I replied with “Well, you sure proved me right.” I figure it he had that much energy he could have parked 5 or 6 spaces down and saved the spot for “SOMEBODY THAT REALLY NEEDED IT”.
Handicapped spaces—another nanny-state item foisted upon us by liberals. I have no problem with a business owner voluntarily painting a few spaces blue, but to be forced to do it by the federal government is nanny-state socialism at its finest.
My parish is required to have 24 handicapped spots. That is almost the entire front parking lot. We joke that unless you get to mass an hour before it starts, you’re parking in the back forty!
Honestly, it doesn’t bother me when they are used but it irks me when 15 of those spaces are open and I’m trudging through the snow with my girls in church shoes at 10 below. Now I just drop them off at the door and deal with the snow myself.
If you have the tag, no problem... if you don’t, expect to be mocked.
Off topic, but I've often noticed that the people who most need to WALK circle around the lot looking for a close-in place. They need to park their fat asses as far from the door as possible and get some exercise.
Careful here! According to camle (see post #30), you are “playing into stereotypes” by daring to assume that these poor football players do not deserve their handicapped sticker.
After all, those football players may have had pain shooting up their spines. Or maybe they are running because each step hurts and they want to get in as quickly as possible. Even better, maybe it's because “someone they care about was inside in need of help”.
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