It sometimes amazes me the depths of crappiness to which people can sink. This was brought to mind recently when I saw two different women at two different grocery stores parking in the handicapped spots in front of the stores. What upset me was that while both had the handicapped parking permit on their rear-view mirror, neither was handicapped. What’s more, though, is that both were wealthy, in very expensive cars, and I think that this is maybe the biggest reason I was mad.

Why? The conclusion I immediately jumped to in both cases was that money bought their handicapped permit. I have zero evidence of this, of course, other than they fact that their cars were expensive (a new Vette and a new Mercedez convertible). That said, I’ve gotten angry at plenty of poor(er) folks misusing a handicapped spot in the past…

In any event, what’s more likely is that they have a handicapped member in their families, and got the permits legitimately. Even then, however, I get very tense at the fact that both of these women clearly feel that having their permit is what is important when it comes to parking in a handicapped spot, as opposed to a legit need to use it. Both were walking at a brisk pace, carrying baskets with groceries, and clearly, clearly not physically handicapped in any way.

That kind of secondhanded entitlement makes me tense.