Please Respect This Sign Today. You May Need It Tomorrow!
I have to be open and honest from the beginning, this is a rant about selfish motorists. If I offend you because you are one of the people about whom I’m complaining, that's what I intend to do. But if I can get you to think about your actions and perhaps to correct them, that will be worth the effort.
Everyday I see things that are so self-centred; that are done without any concern for anyone else, that I am astonished and outraged. Starting with the way many people drive, they position their cars by cutting corners without knowing whether or not anyone is coming the other way. This often results in frontal crashes. Frankly, if the offending driver is killed that’s one less menace on the road. Unfortunately, it’s probably all too often the other driver to suffer the worst of it.
On a recent visit to Mercadona supermarket in Lliria, near the Pla D’ Arc, a driver with a Wales sticker drove his car into the parking area and parked it at an angle across two parking spaces. This all by itself was bad enough, and he showed not the least concern that he was taking up two parking spaces. However, both spaces were clearly marked reserved for Handicapped Drivers. The crassness of these people’s selfishness took my breath away. Bastards! Shame on you! There can be no excuse. In case they could not read Spanish there was even a picture to assist these morally dead idiots.
Then there is the offence of simply parking in Handicapped reserve spaces by people who are clearly handicapped, but only in so far as they have shit where their brains should be. When we do this, we are simply saying to the handicapped: Fuck You!
Then there are those people who park in loading/unloading areas reserved for delivery trucks. This is a selfish thing to do, especially when there is a dire shortage of parking spaces. I have been tempted to do the same, but instead I will go and find a pay parking area that’s perhaps a little farther away.
There is one offence that is so often committed that makes me so angry I feel like doing something drastic to remedy the situation. In many places the city has made provision for people who are confined to their wheelchairs to be able to access the sidewalk, and to go from one to another. They have made a slope in the sidewalk, but, in so many cases along comes a car and they park right across the access point. The driver just gets out and walks away.
I try and imagine how a handicapped person must feel when they come to this point, and I can only think that they must be so angry and hurt at the same time. When a policeman sees this he should call in the grua and tow the vehicle away. The driver's fine should be at least 1,000 euros, mainly for his insensitivity and to teach him or her a lesson.
I will only say that there can be one solution to permanently remedy this situation, and that is that such drivers should meet with an accident that places them in a wheelchair. It need only be for a limited time, but the first time that they are confronted by such wilful neglect for their welfare by someone who should have been more sensitive the message will have been driven home. Trying to talk to these people will be an exercise in futility as they are obviously too stupid to accept the truth.
I´m sure there are many other examples, and we need to think before we act. When trampling over the rights of the handicapped we should remember that our fully capability status today could change in an instant. It is in our own interest to protect the rights of the handicapped before we need those rights ourselves.
“There but for the Grace of God, go I.”
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael
I have to be open and honest from the beginning, this is a rant about selfish motorists. If I offend you because you are one of the people about whom I’m complaining, that's what I intend to do. But if I can get you to think about your actions and perhaps to correct them, that will be worth the effort.
Everyday I see things that are so self-centred; that are done without any concern for anyone else, that I am astonished and outraged. Starting with the way many people drive, they position their cars by cutting corners without knowing whether or not anyone is coming the other way. This often results in frontal crashes. Frankly, if the offending driver is killed that’s one less menace on the road. Unfortunately, it’s probably all too often the other driver to suffer the worst of it.
On a recent visit to Mercadona supermarket in Lliria, near the Pla D’ Arc, a driver with a Wales sticker drove his car into the parking area and parked it at an angle across two parking spaces. This all by itself was bad enough, and he showed not the least concern that he was taking up two parking spaces. However, both spaces were clearly marked reserved for Handicapped Drivers. The crassness of these people’s selfishness took my breath away. Bastards! Shame on you! There can be no excuse. In case they could not read Spanish there was even a picture to assist these morally dead idiots.
Then there is the offence of simply parking in Handicapped reserve spaces by people who are clearly handicapped, but only in so far as they have shit where their brains should be. When we do this, we are simply saying to the handicapped: Fuck You!
Then there are those people who park in loading/unloading areas reserved for delivery trucks. This is a selfish thing to do, especially when there is a dire shortage of parking spaces. I have been tempted to do the same, but instead I will go and find a pay parking area that’s perhaps a little farther away.
There is one offence that is so often committed that makes me so angry I feel like doing something drastic to remedy the situation. In many places the city has made provision for people who are confined to their wheelchairs to be able to access the sidewalk, and to go from one to another. They have made a slope in the sidewalk, but, in so many cases along comes a car and they park right across the access point. The driver just gets out and walks away.
I try and imagine how a handicapped person must feel when they come to this point, and I can only think that they must be so angry and hurt at the same time. When a policeman sees this he should call in the grua and tow the vehicle away. The driver's fine should be at least 1,000 euros, mainly for his insensitivity and to teach him or her a lesson.
I will only say that there can be one solution to permanently remedy this situation, and that is that such drivers should meet with an accident that places them in a wheelchair. It need only be for a limited time, but the first time that they are confronted by such wilful neglect for their welfare by someone who should have been more sensitive the message will have been driven home. Trying to talk to these people will be an exercise in futility as they are obviously too stupid to accept the truth.
I´m sure there are many other examples, and we need to think before we act. When trampling over the rights of the handicapped we should remember that our fully capability status today could change in an instant. It is in our own interest to protect the rights of the handicapped before we need those rights ourselves.
“There but for the Grace of God, go I.”
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael
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