Accents
No parking?
Yea gods, absolutely NO PARKING to drivers who don't fall in the category of the handicapped. They can read all right but they refuse to heed the sign PARKING SPACE FOR THE DISABLED. Perhaps the meaning is beyond them because they are not literate enough. Usurpers of Privilege -- that tag should be made to hang around their necks as soon as they step out of their cars cozily parked on the space designated for the disabled.
This biggest mall in town that proudly calls itself a City recently flooded the streets, not with Christmas decors, but with advertisements of its 3-day sale. Like the crowd who want to avail themselves of saving a few pesos on the so-called 50% off on selected items, my husband Rudy and I went on the first day of the widely advertised 3-day SALE. The hubby drove round and round the parking block because the places designated for the disabled (those immediately facing the mall's three entrances) were already occupied. Maybe several handicapped must have gone shopping. Huh?
Because Rudy has arthritis, a parking spot requiring a long walk to the mall's entrance banished all thoughts of enjoyable shopping. Nevertheless, with his cane and me serving as human cane, walked we did, interspersed with a few stops now and then. Forward to the so-called SALE we went to contribute to the corporate gods' coffers.
A surprising "find" (more aptly "no find") we discovered that particular morning was not in the pile of sale items, but in the cars parked in the place for the disabled: there were no "disabled sticker" on their windshield. Aha, complain time has come! What really broke the camel's back, so to speak, was seeing a brawny driver, looking very much in the prime of life, getting into his sleek Pajero and effortlessly maneuvering it out of the parking space for the disabled.
The following week, Rudy and I went to the mall's Customer Service section to request for a sticker for the handicapped. The lady said stickers of this kind are being sold at the National Bookstore. I said I would like one issued out by the mall itself to which the lady responded the mall doesn't give out one. She then directed me to the Mall Administration office that might be able to help with our problem. Off to the said office I went, leaving the hubby to seat comfortably in the food court now less noisy without the thick crowd.
Mall Manager Majella Liboon was in Manila and could not attend to our complaint. In her stead was PR personnel Troy Camarista, a personable, accommodating young fellow who assured me of doing something about the parking problem for the disabled. Troy, tell management to enforce its parking regulation, enforce it to the letter. Otherwise, the large sign PARKING SPACE FOR THE DISABLED is useless if the space is free to all takers, open to individuals insensitive to moral dictates. True, management shows caring, concern, social responsibility by providing convenient parking spaces for the disabled. Nevertheless, this concern must go beyond appearances by being enforced. Indeed, what good is a rule or any ordinance for that matter if the same is not enforced?
Troy spoke about the Association of Disabled Persons that management has helped. I say, give further help to association members who drive by giving them stickers to the parking space of the disabled. And, Troy, the mall's security guards must tell those without stickers that they are improperly parked and must therefore find another parking space of which the mall has plenty. Right?
I thought of my daughters and the many Pinoys abroad who refrain from using the parking space for the disabled not so much to avoid being fined if caught usurping the disabled's parking space, but simply because they put a premium on respecting the law -- ordinary people who are aware of the duties of citizenship: obedience to the rule of law.
I thought of my husband, a retiree, who in whose seventy odd years still drive because the exercise is good for his arthritic legs. I wish for him to approach old age gracefully instead of throwing expletives to those appropriating for themselves the parking space for the disabled.
I thought of the young drivers and drivers in midlife--able-bodied, well built, in tip-top health--who, as the years roll on, will eventually become senior citizens. In their sunset years, better in their golden years, their muscles will be just good enough to maneuver the car to the nearest parking space such as the one provided for the disabled.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)