The LuLac Edition #2087, June 12th, 2012

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The arrow points to where you can't park. And the great union label of compassion and understanding.  
  

IRONIC PARKING

 I am a big fan of irony. Sarcasm not so much but I like an ironic twist to things. So I had to share this story with you. Sometimes you hear stories like this and you think the person telling the tale might be exaggerating. But I saw this with my own eyes first hand. On Saturday evening, we pulled into handicapped parking spot number 3 at a local church and dutifully parked between the lines. An elderly parishioner moving slower than I pulled into spot number two. When we came out of church, an SUV was pulled in the lines between us. The SUV was so close to our car and the other woman’s that we could not open our doors to get in. The elderly lady, stooped over, said that she can’t understand why people park in those lines because they are meant to have the handicapped person swing the door open and get in the car without hurting themselves. She told me that since her arthritis set in, she has restrictions on her movement. The older woman had more concerns than just parking because I could see she was in pain. The wait for her was excruciating. Unable to get in her car, we decided to wait to see if she could get in her vehicle safely. With not much to do, I leaned against the SUV waiting for the driver to emerge from Mass. A few minutes later, a strapping, tall guy with a bountiful mustache comes out. He opens his door and with the agility of Mario Andretti getting into his race car, he squirms into his SUV. Did I mention that this guy had a handicapped placard? Anyway, I begin to tell him that the lines are not intended for parking and he says nothing. I am now standing in front of his vehicle saying this and he completely ignores me and starts his engine. The older lady and Mrs. LuLac tell me to get out of the way but I keep on trying to instruct him in the ways of why those lines were put there. Finally, I step back because the last thing I need is to get run over by this guy because his sight line might be blocked by his handicapped placard. What annoyed me to no end was the fact that this big, strapping man didn’t own up to his mistake and say, “Lady, I’m sorry, I was in a hurry and needed to get to Mass”. I would have completely understood that. Even the older lady would have felt the same way. But he arrogantly ignored us, glared at us for calling him on it and just said nothing. He was acting like he was entitled to break the rules. And when caught, he didn’t see the need to say, “hey sorry, give me a break”. Then I saw something that made me understand completely his behavior. On the front of his SUV was a License Plate that read Luzerne County Local 840. Of course I said, slapping my forehead. He’s a local government union member. How silly of me to ask him to follow the rules. HE’S ENTITLED!!!!!!! Entitled to park where he wanted to, (it wasn’t an emergency vehicle by the way) entitled to not say a word to us crippled less than Tiny Tim disabled folks and most likely entitled to run me over if I stood there any longer. By the way, Local 840 represents firefighters & paramedics who primarily deal with public safety. Except of course for law abiding people trying to use handicapped parking the way it was intended. But hey, we aren't union so if we did complain....nobody would listen.