The above picture is from Derek Weida’s FB page, additionally I have seen it in my FB feed posted by other sites too. This man gave to his country above and beyond and he now possess a shiny titanium left leg. Yet something tells me that even though he approves of these Purple Heart placard parking spots – and by the way look at those guns — he himself would never use one; he is as tough as they come and God bless him.
Here in Houston parking lots are huge, and I can safely bet in the whole state of Texas, too. I lived in Hawaii where if one drives any type of SUV parking is almost impossible, especially on town-side, in fact some streets are too tight for an SUV to drive down… let alone park on.
So what does a business do in Houston with huge parking lots? They make the first five or so spots on every row handicap parking. I have yet to ever see more than a few of those spots with vehicles in them. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that’s great to care about handicapped people, but here in the Houston area, it’s simply overkill.
Not only that, but many times in these marked handicapped spots there are young, able-bodied males hopping out of whatever they are driving and sprinting – more than likely trying to hide from their guilt — into the local Walmart, Sam’s Club, CVS and Walgreen’s or Home Depot; obviously these sprinters have hi-jacked their grannies rear-view mirror handicap hanger. So, let’s think about that issue for a moment. Oh, and let me tell you, the hi-jacked grannie rear-view mirror handicap hanger is an even bigger deal in church parking lots on Sundays … Oh, yes! But that is another article.
Yet, on the other hand, if the parking lots installed Purple Heart parking only placards for our wounded veterans – we as Americans owe our wounded veterans this show of respect — I could fully support a good portion share of those first five spots on every row for our vets needing to park. In fact, make some spots for any of our veterans, wounded or not.
And to you, you Walmart parking-lot sprinter-boys, you better possess a well-defined limp or sport a missing limb if you go trying to hi-jack a Purple Heart handicap parking spot! There exists plenty of Texans where I live who will kick your butt for stealing valor, because that’s exactly what parking in one of these spots would be doing; I dare you.
