Conservative Safe-Awareness Test Failure, Case Study #16

[elfs]

This morning as I drove into work (yes, sigh, one of those days), I tumbled through the radio channels and stumbled onto local conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher. Mike was ranting about how he recently was diagnosed with a needed hip replacement and got a handicapped sticker, and "You wouldn't believe how many times I've gone to the mall and seen a perfectly healthy person park in one of those blue zones, leap out of their cars and run into the mall."

Well, actually, yes I would. I'm sure there are a few who have abused the system, but not hardly the numbers Mike's topic would suggest from his segment title, "Disability Nation." Because I've been "that guy." What most people don't realize is that most handicapped people have assistants, friends, and spouses who help them get about: who drive them places, drop them off at the front door, and go to find parking. Sometimes, the entire point of using the blue zone is so we can get the handicapped person back to the car after the exhaustion of trying to navigate a busy shopping center or other facility with a cane, a walker, or a wheelchair.

So there's that.

However, what made me laugh, hard, was the advertising segment at the bottom of the hour, immediately after Gallagher's long and somewhat ridiculous rant. Having said his piece, he immediately launched into a read-on-the-spot paid advertisement for disability assistants, hired people "who will help your aging and disabled parents and loved ones when they need it."

Absolutely no thought connected the two.

Comments

[urox.livejournal.com]

This even completely ignores those who rightfully have the placards because their arms are disabled in some way and only have so much muscle function to get to the mall and back, but their legs work just fine.

This world needs more education about invisible diseases.