Leave handicap spots for those who really need them
Leave handicap spots for those who really need them
Like many of the baby boomers, my body is wearing out. I’m scheduled for a knee replacement in a few months, and am having great difficulty walking any distance right now. I’m using a cane or crutches most days. After struggling getting to the gate at the airport, I asked my doctor if I could get a handicap parking pass. He said yes and I filled out the paperwork.
When I picked it up a week or so later, I was told that since I might need it for more than six months, it would be issued for six years. The woman said I could return it when it’s not needed anymore but that most people keep it.
Six years? I was so excited that I’d be able to park close to the door and not have to struggle through the parking lot when I run errands. Boy have I been disappointed. So far, in over a month of daily use, I have yet to park in a single handicap spot. They are all full every place I go. The most frustrating part is, as I struggle through a long walk to the door, I see people who seem to have no visible problems causally strolling up to their vehicle parked in a handicap spot. Yes, I understand some people might have unseen issues, but it seems like it’s more than 50 percent who walk normally.
A friend stopped a woman a week ago and asked why she is parking in a handicap spot and she said she was allowed to do it because it’s her mother’s handicap pass. Mom was at home and not with her. The law says that the person issued the pass has to be in the vehicle and must have the paper ID that was issued with the pass.
Shame on you people who don’t deserve to be using the pass or who keep using it long after you have gotten over your illness. Because of these people, people like me go through pain we shouldn’t have to because of their selfishness. To our police officers: How about checking the ID of people who are using these passes? Maybe if they have to pay a few stiff fines and word gets around they will leave these spots for people who really need them.
Marty Barger
Kailua-Kona
Sadness for man without a home
I write this on Father’s Day because I have been so struck by the circumstances surrounding the recent discovery of the body of a homeless person near the Hilo airport (Foul play ruled out in Hilo body, West Hawaii Today, June 18).
Left to die on his own, as a feral cat might, this was a soul who was someone’s son. Like each of us, this 72-year-old Hilo man — with no permanent address — had a father and a mother. He may have fathered a son or daughter. Perhaps he had a sister or brother, or a close friend or two.
This nameless and faceless individual has died, and no one missed him or has mourned his loss this Father’s Day. No one announced that he was a missing person. He just left this earth — totally unnoticed and unappreciated, identifiable only through the fingerprints he left behind.
I am only two years younger than this man, and on this Father’s Day I am so enormously grateful that I have three wonderful children and a loving wife, with whom I celebrate this Father’s Day. I am leading a life that has a measure of significance. I would be missed if I died.
So, to this forsaken and abandoned man, I pay my tribute. Although I do not know you, I mourn your loss. On this Father’s Day my wish is that you will rest in peace.
Richard Dinges
Hilo