Handicapped parking is a hot button for me and a lot of people. The issue with having hot buttons, however, is that they are easily, and sometimes, unnecessarily, pushed. Being suspicious of every person parked in a handicapped spot is just about as bad as being indifferent to laws regarding handicapped parking – especially if you find yourself persecuting the very people whose rights you so vigilantly intend to protect.
A handicapped parker in Michigan recently finished up his errands and returned to his car to find a nasty note left on his windshield accusing him of having parked illegally and asking him where he keeps his wheelchair.
Matt Milstead, 36, said he found the note accusing him of being an able-bodied person taking advantage of a handicapped spot.
“I would love to see your wheelchair,” the scrawling handwriting said.
But what the note writer didn’t know is that Milstead has been using a wheelchair for nearly two decades.
This note-writer probably thought he or she was doing a good deed calling out a rotten faker, but hadn’t actually seen Milstead exit his car and get into another four-wheeled mode of transportation.
As much as I dislike people who use handicapped parking spaces fraudulently, I can’t give a cheer for the overzealous who go too far the other direction. Life is not like a reality show – we don’t need to react so much. Making the world a better place is about truth and tolerance, not ignorance and confrontation.
