Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Sometimes it's not clear

Thanks to a facebook buddy that posted the link to this interesting article. Do you have a disabled driver hang tag? Do you every feel as though you are being judged unfairly by other drivers because our disability is invisible?


"I think I recognize you... I do. Before becoming a Mom, I used to live in your world of black and white, with everything in order, in its place. I had a plan, a schedule, a list of finished projects to check off, checklist and all. How wonderful for you that your life is so structured, so dependable and predictable that you cling to that line dividing right and wrong, black and white, and that you feel compelled to comment when you think someone is coloring outside the lines." Continue reading here.

7 comments:

Blogger Mama said...

That just makes me sad. My heart would break if I found a note like that. I am always worried that someone will approach me and accuse me of not needing a handicap tag. I cannot imagine how horrible this mom must have felt actually finding a note like that. :o(

annie said...

As bad as that note was, I'm appalled at some of the comments left behind. Why are people so judgmental and sticking their nose where it has no business to be?

Sue said...

How sad for that mom. We have a permit for my son, who has cerebral palsy, but fortunately have never experienced anything like that. My Sjogrens doesn't require me to have one. There is some degree of abuse of the permits in Ontario but unless the disability is obvious there is no way of knowing what challenges a person faces in their lives. I think society these days makes people feel it is acceptable to be nasty to others. You see it on reality tv all the time.

ShEiLa said...

What a quick response to judge another fellow human being... Oh my! Makes my heart hurt.

peggy said...

I hate to say it but I have been on BOTH sides of that note. I saw a man parked in handicapped with his blue card displayed. Now he was lifting building supplies from Home Depot into his van and he looked a healthy 40 something. There was a disconnect in my mind between lifting and his bad back he said he had??? Later on I thought well maybe i jumped to a conclusion I shouldn't have, and opened my big mouth way too quickly that time.
Now I said I have been on both sides of this equation: I parked in the blue zone once and forgot to place my mothers placard on the rear view mirror. Now granted, the person that left the unbelievable filthy note for me did not see me get my blind mother out of the car and struggle to get her larger than life chrome wheel chair out of the trunk of my car and go into the store pushing that monster (the chair not my sweet mother). So when I returned I found a note filled with the ever popular F word multiple times and used as a verb and noun! And ya know it wasn't even on pink!
Mom was right - what goes 'round comes around eventually.

Kelly said...

I just figure that if someone really is using the handicapped spaces fraudulently they know it and their handicap is worse to bear in the end than many of the physical handicaps that legitimately support the use of the special spaces.

Cheers to this devoted mom and her measured, thoughtful response to this sneak attack.

Gill said...

I think that the person who found this note should send it to the local newspaper with a 'anyone know this writing' question, making sure that the Hamptons logo is very visible. Not to identify yourself is a form of bullying. If the recipient was over stressed (carer of high needs person etc) this sort of thing could be the simple thing that pushes them over the edge.

If it is outside a store, hospital etc, then alert security, in some places there are fines for misuse of disabled bays.

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