hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0597.txt

Episode: 597
Title: HPR0597: QSK Episode 3: Old and in the Way
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0597/hpr0597.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 23:43:07

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Hello everybody, this is Russ.
Welcome to QSK Netcast number three.
Tonight is going to be a little bit of a rant cast.
I'm going to talk about something that's been big part of my life for the last 11 years or so.
And I have with me my significant other Cheryl tonight to talk about it with me.
And you're still here, I assume?
Yes, I am.
Okay, excellent.
We're going to talk a little bit about being handicapped and specifically handicapped parking.
The reason this is interesting to me and interesting to Cheryl is because Cheryl was in a car accident back in 1994 and has been wheelchair bound since then.
So issues of handicapped and people with disabilities have been forefront on both of our minds for quite some time.
And lately we have been having problems or seeing problems with the scope of handicapped placarding and handicapped licensing of vehicles, particularly in the state of Missouri, which is our state of purview since that's where we both live.
And we're going to talk about this in the context of Missouri statutes, Missouri laws and what we've both personally seen in our day-to-day lives and experience in our day-to-day lives more her than me because I'm ambulatory and she's not and she has probably some more ranting to do than I do.
We'll talk first about handicapped parking and the benefits of it.
And the benefits of it as I see it are the fact that those with disabilities, particularly those who are in wheelchairs or have to deal with crutches or walkers or other mobility devices, have a better chance of being able to get into and out of businesses and other places they might visit.
Whether it's the local Walmart or the national park that they might be visiting or something like that, you know, that's a good thing. That's what it's there for. That's the idea.
But lately there have been nothing but problems with it, at least as far as I've seen because for the most part it seems like the people who are using handicapped parking spaces or accessing areas
that are configured for the disabled aren't particularly disabled. So what have you seen lately as far as that goes?
Actually, I've been seeing a lot of people that don't appear handicapped and I'm not saying that they're not because I'm not a physician obviously.
Basically, abusing the fact that, you know, look, here's a handicapped spot. We'll just whip into it. And these are the type of people that go walk laps or in the mall, but park in a handicapped spot.
And my thought on that is, if you're going to go walk them home, park in a normal spot and walk the extra didn't feed.
But there's just a lot of overall abuses basically for the elderly and handicapped population and I include elderly because of the fact that they are usually with limited mobility.
So stores don't put racks wide enough apart to get a wheelchair through.
Restaurants pack tables too closely together to allow someone in a wheelchair to get to a table easily without having to move every time somebody at the neighboring table wants to get up.
And it's, you know, it's just overall, it's not been a good situation. It's not been a good situation the whole time that I've been in a wheelchair.
I've noticed the same thing, particularly in restaurants. The thing about restaurants is we spend a lot of time in them.
And we've noticed that anytime there's even a small decrease in the amount of disability consideration in a restaurant, particularly our business.
It's really easy to see, especially when you consider that most places don't really think about it.
Like we spend a lot of time going to restaurants. We spend a lot of time going to like shows. We're friends with a lot of local indie bands and we like to go to the venues that they play in.
Unfortunately, some of them are completely inaccessible, completely inaccessible.
Now, in some cases, those are grandfather cases because they're old buildings that can't be retrofitted for ADA compliance or anything like that.
We have one place that we go to where the show floor is up about 35 stairs. There's no elevator or any other way to get into the building.
So that place is completely inaccessible.
But what's interesting is there are places that claim to be accessible that certainly aren't.
Like you might find that you go to a place where there's a parking space that's designated as handicap parking.
But once you get out of your vehicle, there are no ramps onto sidewalks anywhere to be seen.
There may be a six inch curb that nobody in a wheelchair or a walker would be able to navigate.
There might be a three inch step up into the entrance, even if the sidewalk itself is accessible.
Then even if you can get from the street or your parking space up onto the sidewalk and up to the door, the door might not be wide enough to allow wheelchair access.
So there's lots of things to consider and most people don't consider those things.
I understand that in older buildings, that's just kind of the nature of the beast.
You can't necessarily do anything to make these things accessible.
But new construction is supposed to be and you'd be surprised how much it isn't.
But we're going to talk a little bit about some of the laws and I've done some research on the Missouri Statues.
We are focusing on Missouri because this is the place where we live and these are the things that are specific to us.
And some of these laws may vary in whatever state or country you live in.
I think it's fair to say that most of these probably vary little from state and jurisdiction to other states and other jurisdictions.
What are the places that bother you?
I mean, what are the things that you've seen that bother you the most about disability concerns?
Meaning the ability to get into buildings or parking or what exactly?
Or anywhere you might want to go or something you might want to do.
I mean, what are the things that bother you the most about the ones that you find you can't do or can't go to once you get there?
A lot of it is the doors aren't wide enough or there's a step up.
I've called multiple places over the years and said, are you wheelchair accessible?
And they've said yes. And then when I get there, there's a step into the building or there's not a ramp onto the curb to get, you know, to the door of the building or the door is not wide enough.
Multiple times you've had to physically help me into a building and then carry my wheelchair in because, you know, the door just wouldn't open far enough or, you know, wasn't wide enough to start out with.
And then, you know, I've had problems with parking and a handicap parking spot and having someone rush over and demand to know why I'm parking there because I'm also overweight.
Part of that is due to the fact that I've been in a wheelchair for the last 16 years.
But I'm young and they think that I'm faking it or I've borrowed grandma's placard or whatever to park in that spot.
And, you know, one thing that stands out in my mind that was just appalling was several years ago, we were at a restaurant in Branson, Missouri, you and I were there with my parents.
Yeah, you and my father stay behind to pay for our meals. My mother and I headed out to our vehicle. My mother was on oxygen. I, of course, was in my wheelchair.
And a gentleman stopped, even though there were a dozen empty handicap parking spots and demanded to know why we thought we have the right to park in a handicap parking spot.
And that just floored me, you know, not only do I have an old woman behind me with oxygen, but I'm in a wheelchair.
And I was, I was just shocked that somebody would have the nerve to ask a question along those lines.
But a lot of people, the normal person that's not handicapped or that does not have a handicapped friend or family member never looks at the fact that places are not accessible.
You know, I've asked friends that, you know, I haven't had to deal with me a lot. Well, is that restaurant going to be accessible? Can I get into it?
Yeah, of course, then when we get there, we find it's not luckily I do have a few friends that pay especially close attention to, oh, no, there's a lip that she won't be able to get over to get into this building or there's no handicap parking or there's no parking period.
You know, she'd have to park several blocks away. So that's, you know, it's just the overall mistreatment or people not thinking about the disadvantages that the handicapped have over the able bodied folks.
And it's interesting that some people are well-intentioned. I mean, well, let's get that out of the open to begin with. It's not like they're deliberately trying to make things inconvenient. It's just simply not on their minds.
And they look at something like, you know, one step up into a building as perfectly accessible when they don't, you know, when they don't consider the fact that the wheelchair doesn't necessarily go over steps very well.
But you can't necessarily blame them because it's just not on their mind. But we have seen some bizarre circumstances when it comes to the using the legalities concerning handicapped placarding and handicapped license plates, particularly when it comes to the elderly, which is something you run up before.
It seems like being old these days gives people the idea that it's okay for them to have handicapped tax just because they've reached a certain age because there are seniors or something like that.
Well, interestingly, the Missouri statutes, the Missouri laws concerning handicapped placarding specifically dispute those things.
Before I go into reading some of some of the laws specifically, why don't you talk about some of the situations you've come across. You've talked about one confrontation we had with you and your mother with a person who just couldn't believe that you were parking in a handicapped spot despite the fact that you were in a wheelchair and your mother carried portable oxygen.
But there was also a situation at the mall we both saw. Why don't you tell us that story.
A few years ago we were at the battlefield mall in Springfield, Missouri, hunting desperately. It was at Christmas time hunting desperately for a parking space, hoping that we might possibly get a handicapped spot.
And we saw a group of people coming out of the mall and about that time we saw a car backing out of a handicapped spot so we rushed to go get that spot.
We pulled in and as we pulled in there's two, I'm assuming 15 passenger vans parked front to front and the four handicapped spots over there.
And there was an older lady and a large group of teenagers. The older lady got into one of the vans and the group of teenagers got into the other one and the older lady then popped her head out of her van and said bring grandma's placard back to her, which infuriated me because we have a group of 15, 16, 17 year old girls that had gone shopping purely to abuse grandma's placard.
Because grandma had actual handicapped plates on her vehicle. And the state of Missouri, which, you know, they do allow you to have a handicapped plate on your car and be issued a placard because there are the times where you might be out of town or in a car, you know, and of course you're going to need the placard.
But that was just blatant abuse and I've seen it multiple times since then, especially at the mall and at Walmart and there's also the case of people parking in the cross hatch space between handicapped parking spots, purely because they're too lazy to walk an extra 20 feet and parking a real parking space.
Which creates problems for those that are disabled, being able to get their doors open or if the vehicle wasn't there when they got out of their car and is there when they get back, you know, how are you supposed to get back in your vehicle if there's six inches between the car and you need to get a wheelchair, you know, up next your art.
This is just something that, you know, able-bodied people tend to be and not all, but they tend to be unthinking of what they do.
Last week I was at the mall and I had parked in handicapped space and had opened my door and heard a car horn and brakes squealing to see a woman driving through the cross hatch area.
And apparently I had opened my door about the time she had started through that cross hatch area.
I never thought that I needed to check and make sure that I wasn't going to be roadkill, but that, you know, she made it look like, you know, the only she behaved while she was in the car, made it seem like it's all my fault that I wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, which was probably illegal.
But, you know, as I said, it's just a lot of able-bodied folks don't think of the disadvantages that the handicapped face, whether it's, you know, getting into buildings or, you know, eating in a restaurant or trying to get through clothing racks at a, you know, a store in the mall.
You know, there's in places like Sears are so tightly packed together.
You know, the only hope of getting to the rack in the back is to actually ask a sales clerk to go get you a shirt or something off of that rack that you see that you might like.
So, and this, this problem has been in existence since my grandmother was alive because when I took her shopping because of her own personal health concerns.
She couldn't walk in the mall, so I would put her in a wheelchair and I would have to go darting through racks to bring clothes up to her because she can get her wheelchair back to various racks.
Yeah, let's be clear that we're not exactly trying to disparage every able-bodied person, which I happen to be one of, but the whole point here is to get people to think about stuff.
I mean, just on a day-to-day basis, it's nice to think about it.
And people, I know that people have the attitude that somebody might be in a wheelchair or might have done something to coerce a doctor or something like that to give them a handicap placard just to have the ability to park in the closer spaces to be in that more convenient space.
But in terms of the legalities of the situation, it's actually completely the other way around.
Those people who are older, who give you the evil eye, whenever a younger person in a wheelchair parks in a handicap spot, those are the people who are abusing the system.
And that kind of abuses rampant.
Unfortunately, most people don't even try to enforce the legalities of that system.
The police are given pretty much carte blanche to deal with it.
But honestly, unless it's going on at the time, and you can get a police officer to a parking space where there's a non-handicap person, either abusing a placard or just playing parking in the space that they're not legally obligated to be in, nothing's really done about it.
And it just pisses me off this whole idea that getting old gives you a pass to get handicap access to places, because it's basically a crock of shit.
Let's talk a little bit about some of the laws.
And I did some digging today, and I looked up the Missouri statutes.
And like I said, these are all based in Missouri, and I'm guessing that some of these statutes will apply in other states, some of them won't.
The same goes for other countries.
But overall, I'm betting that in the United States, most of these laws will apply across the country more or less.
So first of all, let's talk about what the fines are in Missouri for fraudulent activities relating to the disabled.
Most of the crimes that are involved are either class B or class A misdemeanors, which are the highest two classes of misdemeanors in the state.
The penalties for being convicted of a class B misdemeanor is to find up to $500 and between 30 days and six months of jail time.
If you're convicted of a class A misdemeanor, that could be a fine up to $1,000 and between six months and 12 months in jail.
Those are pretty stiff fines, and jail sentences for some of these infractions, and we'll talk a little bit about how these things work.
First of all, I'm going to look at Section 301 of the revised Missouri statutes, and this involves titling and licensing of motor vehicles.
Now, in Subsection 141, paragraph 1 of the law, it reads, fraudulent procurement or use of disabled person license plates or windshield placards shall be a class B misdemeanor.
That means if you improperly use a placard or license plate or the vehicle that contains a handicap license plate in the state of Missouri, and you're convicted of that crime, you can be fined up to $500 and spent up to six months in jail for doing that.
In paragraph 2 of that statute, it reads, any physician or other health care practitioner authorized to issue a physician's statement or certificate to enable persons to obtain disabled license plates or windshield hanging placards, who issues signs or furnishes such statement or certificate to any person who does not meet one or more of the conditions set forth in Subsection 142, which we'll get to in a minute.
If there is no basis for the diagnosis or who issues signs or furnishes such statement for a condition, the diagnosis of which is outside the scope of such health care providers license is guilty of a class B misdemeanor, which means they could be fined up to $500 and spend up to six months in jail.
Unfortunately, I think this penalty is not nearly steep enough. I honestly think that if you are a health care provider and you fraudulently issue a statement allowing people to get handicap access to placards or license plates, that you should be convicted of a felony.
I think this should be a felony offense only because the rampant nature that is clearly happening regarding this. What do you think about that?
I agree completely, and the fact that when I first got my placard 16 years ago, it stated on the paperwork that the paperwork had to be filled out by an orthopedist, a cardiologist, or a pulmonologist, because basically in the state of Missouri, if you don't have a heart problem, a breathing problem, or you're not disabled in some way,
you're not supposed to have a placard. That apparently has some changed because I know a person that has recently gotten a handicap placard that deals with lymphedema.
That placard or that paperwork was signed by a nurse practitioner lymphedema where it's a severe swelling. Her paperwork was not filled out by a physician. It was actually filled out by a nurse practitioner.
I think the state of Missouri and maybe other states as well need to redefine their rules on who can fill out this paperwork and sign it because she has been offered routes for treatment of her condition and she refuses to undergo the treatment that has been suggested, which that's her right.
But she will actually beat me to handicap parking spot. There's been times where she's parked in a handicap parking spot and I've had to park in a normal parking spot, a block away from a building, and hoof it into the building in my wheelchair.
She doesn't understand that it's rough dealing with a manual wheelchair trying to get into a building from a block away when she's had to make four or five steps to get to the door.
Well, here's the thing about that. I'm looking, I didn't have this in my list of notes, but according to Missouri Statute 301 subsection 42 paragraph three, the person's authorized to provide or to sign the paperwork for authorizing handicap placards involves the following.
Advanced practice registered nurses, chiropractors, podiatrists, and optometrists, and that's it. There are statutes which define those people, but I don't believe nurse practitioner is in that list.
Now, I could be wrong about that because I'd actually have to go and look at the statutes that defines like an RN license pursuant to chapter 335 and I have to go look that up.
It was an advanced practice RN advanced practice RN is the is the wording yes.
I would assume that that would be the nurse practitioner.
Okay, well, if that's the case, then that is done legally then, but there are also statutes that say that friends say that again.
I said she's also a personal friend of ours. So, you know, we've we've gone through her getting her RN license and then her going back to school to get the additional training she needed to become a nurse practitioner, which is essentially a physician's assistant in my mind, but apparently they have enough training to count it for more than that.
So, they they apparently follow under these guidelines properly, but you know, aside from the fact that the I don't think or that we don't think the penalty for fault, you know, for fraudulent issuing this paperwork is is steep enough.
Let's take a look at the Missouri statutes and the specific definitions which consider people disabled according to Missouri state law.
Now, this is in Missouri statute 301 subsection 142 paragraph one says as used in sections 301 141 and 301 143 the following terms mean paragraph four says physically disabled is defined as a natural person who is blind.
Or a natural person with medical disabilities, which prohibits limits or severely impairs one's ability to emulate or walk as determined by a licensed physician or other authorized health care practitioner as follows.
Subparagraph A says the person cannot emulate or walk 50 or less feet without stopping to rest due to a severe and disabling arthritic neurological orthopedic condition or other severe and disabling condition or the person cannot emulate or walk without the use of assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, another person prosthetic device wheelchair or other assistive device.
Or is restricted by a respiratory or other disease to such an extent that the person's forced respiratory expatory volume for one second when measured by spirometry is less than one liter or the arterial oxygen tension is less than 60 millimeters of mercury on roommate rest.
Now, there's a lot of medical mumbo jumbo and legalese in that statement, but basically if you're if you're breathing at rest is less than 60% or two on room air, then you qualify anything above that you don't.
And trust me, if you're breathing at 60% or less, you're not breathing very well.
Let's continue here. Subparagraph D says uses portable oxygen or has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified as severity three or four according to standards set by the American Heart Association and I'll talk about those here in a second.
Or, and this is my favorite part of this statute right here, this is Missouri Statute 301 subsection 142 paragraph for subparagraph F.
A person's age and in of itself shall not be a factor in determining whether such person is physically disabled or as otherwise entitled to disabled license plates and or disabled windshield hanging blackbirds with the meaning of the sections we've already talked about.
So here's a section that specifically excludes people who are old from getting licensed blackbirds unless they have some other condition which warrants it, which means if you happen to be 85, drive a car and can go to Walmart, get out of your car and walk into the store, you don't qualify.
You would be amazed or maybe you wouldn't be amazed at how many people this situation defines exactly.
I would say probably at least 75% of Missouri's population over the age of 60 are owners of handicap placards or license plates because you know, I see, as I said, you know, I see them get other cars at the mall to go walk the mile and a half or whatever it is, the circumference of inside at the mall.
But they park in a handicap parking spot, they don't use it with a cane or a crutch or, you know, or with the use of a walker, you know, they go in and they jog around them all perfectly capable and then walk back up to their car that's parked in the handicap spot.
You know, there's times at Walmart or at other businesses where, you know, the elderly person that pulls and it has an obvious problem, you know, you can tell that they just they don't ambulate very well.
But then there's those that, you know, are the ones that are like the mall walkers where they're perfectly capable of going in a wander around Walmart for two hours looking at everything under the sun with, you know, they don't need a walker or a cane or a crutch or they don't use oxygen.
And I have a big problem with that because I think they actually are abusing, you know, their power. And as I said, you know, I'm pretty sure that 75% of Missouri that's over the age of 60 probably has a handicap placard or a handicap license plate of that 75%.
I would say probably less than 50% actually qualifies probably more like 30 or 40.
You know, and I could be wrong, but just from what I've observed over the years, it seems like maybe one in three or four actually looks like they should be using the handicap placard when I've been out and about.
I think 40% is probably generous. I'd say probably 4% actually meet the criteria as outlined in the laws.
You may say, well, we're judging a book by its cover and you can't really make that justification because they could have some impairment, which gives them the right to have the handicap placard.
But honestly, if you look at the laws and if you look at a person who drives to a particular place and they outline in the laws a specific distance, you know, if you can walk more than 50 feet unated, then you don't qualify.
So basically if someone parks in a handicap spot gets out of their car and walks into whatever business they've parked in front of, they don't qualify. It's as simple as that.
I mean, you look at the laws and you look at the person, if that's the case, if they don't have a walker, if they don't have an obvious impairment of some kind, and they're able to walk the 50 feet from the handicap parking space into the door of the business, they've just driven up to, they don't qualify for a handicap placard.
It doesn't matter if they're 75, 25 or 105. I mean, it's plain and simple. And I suspect that 5% of the people who have handicap placards or handicap license plates probably meet the criteria.
I'd consider this epidemic at this point. And that's why we're talking about it because it's, I mean, it's annoying as hell, really. When you look at it from the point of view of a person who really does need the assistance, those people who are taking advantage of the situation is just ridiculous.
And you may say, well, what about the handicap or what about the heart condition part of the law? Well, here are the heart condition classifications from the American Heart Association that qualify.
Class III says patients with cardiac disease resulting in market limitation of physical activity. They're comfortable at rest, but less than ordinary activity causes fatigue, palpitation, dyspnea, or anginal pain.
So basically, unless you're stooped over clutching your chest when you get inside the Walmart door, you don't qualify. And the class IV says patients with cardiac disease resulting in inability to carry on any physical activity without discomfort symptoms of heart failure or the anginal syndrome may be present even at rest.
If any physical activity is undertaken, discomfort increases. So you're talking about people who have a heart condition so serious that if they were even walking, you would know you'd be able to tell they'd be in clear pain just from being ambulatory.
So honestly, if anyone gets out of a vehicle in front of a business from a handicap parking space and is able to walk into that business and walk back out without assistance, they do not qualify for handicap placard.
I hate to say it. I hate to sound like I'm dissing on everybody. And I hate to sound like I'm being the bad guy and disparaging of all of our citizens and all of our seniors in particular, but this has got to stop. It's ridiculous at this point.
I've got a couple more things to talk about here before we wrap up, but any more thoughts you want to throw in?
No, actually, I think we've pretty well covered the fact that we're irritated that this is going on.
I have handicap friends that have basically expressed the same complaints about the whole gamut that we've pretty well covered this evening.
At times, I just wish people would wake up and look around at what they're doing or what they are contributing to, like doctors giving elderly people that don't meet the qualifications, you know, the paperwork that they need in order to get license plates.
It defines who should actually get the handicap placard or license plate. The people that are out jogging around inside the mall definitely aren't clutching their chest or, you know, using oxygen.
So how did they manage to acquire that paperwork legally, you know, unless if they just wind at their doctor and they said, okay, we'll give it to you.
And as I said, you know, I'm not a physician. I can't judge anyone because, you know, my father had a hard condition and there were days that, you know, the mere act of him going to get gas in his vehicle, just wore him out, but other days where he could actually muster up the energy to go to the grocery store.
Usually by the time he got home, he needed a nap, but, you know, so everybody has good and bad days, you know, obviously.
But again, you know, it pretty well says if you, if you don't need oxygen or some sort of assistive device, like a wheelchair, cane, whatever, you really don't need the placard.
There's lots of people out there that are getting the placards or tags that don't need that stuff. So yeah, I think that's pretty clear. And I believe it goes back to the punishment.
I believe the punishment is not steep enough and the enforcement is completely absent. I mean, $500 fine for a doctor is essentially nothing in the fact that they probably rarely get prosecuted for such things means that they're just going to do it.
They know they'll never get caught for it and even if they do the penalty for doing so is just minimal. If you make the penalty 10 years in jail mandatory for doing this just once, you know, things are going to change.
I think it's pretty clear. And speaking of penalties for stuff, let's talk about this other thing that I wanted to make people aware of. And that is that if you happen to know somebody who's got a car with handicapped placard or handicapped tags on it, that doesn't mean you get to use it.
Just because you happen to have access to one doesn't mean it's legal to park in, you know, a handicapped space. People may think, well, I've got a placard. I'm borrowing it from my friend Joe or from my friend Jane.
Therefore, I can park in handicapped space. Well, no, you can't. There's a little side bit to this law that a lot of people may not realize. And that's that for every placard or license plate that's that's issued, there is a corresponding doctor's document and a corresponding registration for that placard.
And if a cop comes up to you and knocks on your window and says, can I see the registration for that placard and you show it to him? Well, first of all, you're not going to have it because you're not supposed to have the placard. But even if you do, the registration is not going to match your license and you're screwed basically. Unfortunately, that kind of enforcement just doesn't happen.
But if it did, you'd be out of luck, brother. I mean, that's the simplest gets because quite frankly, the law says, if you happen to abuse the privilege of parking in a handicapped placard or a handicapped space, but you don't have a placard, the fine for that in the state of Missouri, at least, is from $50 to $300.
Most people are willing to risk that because they're not going to get prosecuted pretty much, although if I happen to be around, they may find themselves in a sticky situation.
And on top of that, if you happen to be borrowing somebody else's placard and get caught doing that, your guilty of a class B misdemeanor. And as we talked about before, a class B misdemeanor in the state of Missouri means you can be fined up to $500. It's been six months in jail or both.
I honestly wish that enforcement was tighter on this, that the penalties were steeper. You know, this is coming from a person who's not particularly big on laws in general.
But if we're going to have these statutes in place to make things easier for people with disabilities who actually need it, then we shouldn't be watering it down and dumbing it down and making it ridiculous and just giving everybody a placard.
Because at some point, they're just going to be giving out to everybody the whole situation is going to be untenable.
Nothing's going to get enforced. And it's just going to be a ridiculous bullshit situation, which I think we're getting very close to now.
So I think something needs to be done about it. I think enforcement needs to be stepped up. I think penalties need to be stiffened.
And if something doesn't happen about it soon, I may go on some kind of crusade. We'll see what happens.
I think I've ran into myself out at this point and we've gone plenty long enough. So if there's anything else you want to rant about, go ahead.
And after that, I guess we'll wrap it up.
No, I think I'm done with ranting this evening.
Well, you haven't ranted very much. You haven't gotten lots of violent vitriol in your voice.
I'm sorry. It's just it's a problem that has gone on for so long now. I've just kind of shared my shoulders and sigh and cope and deal because, you know, as you said, it's getting way out of hand.
And at this point, it seems like there's no hope in it being fixed anytime soon.
Because, you know, each year it just seems to get a little worse instead of better. So at this point, you know, all I can do is just cope and deal and go on.
Well, maybe this will start us on the road to a better future for those with disabilities. Who knows?
Something might spark somebody to get something done. If not, maybe we'll have to do it ourselves.
But, you know, let's not sit back. Let's not be laxataisical about the situation. It's really getting out of hand. It's getting untenable.
Old people do not, by default, get handicapped placards. If nothing else, just write a little fake ticket or something.
If you see somebody who's in the situation, stick it under their windshield wiper. Tell them they're a jerk or an asshole or something for parking in a handicapped space when it's clear they shouldn't be.
Or they're abusing the privilege of somebody else's placard. We have to, you know, we have to start somewhere. And if that's where we have to start, well, let's do it.
Anyway, thank you for coming on and talking to me or talking with me about this. It's been a lot of fun.
You're welcome. I don't get included in anything like this usually. So it was fun.
Well, you've been included in this one and I'm sure will include you in the future.
Okay. Well, I think it's about time to sign off. I think we both need to get to bed here and get this podcast out and let everybody listen to us.
Have our little bit, our 35 minute pitch pass. So thanks once again for everybody tuning into the QSK netcast. This has been episode three with Russ and Cheryl.
And I will catch you all in the next episode in a week or so. And we'll rant or teach you about something else, something interesting.
Stay tuned. It's all going to be good. We'll catch you next time.
Thank you for listening to H.P.R. sponsored by Carol.net.
So head on over to C-A-R-O dot-E-T for all of us here.
Thank you.