Handicapable

My doctor told me the other day that I could qualify legally for a handicapped parking permit. For a number of different conditions that I have and the fact that I have sought treatment for so long and don't have any improvement.

Should I get one?

I tend to not like to sign on for government goodies, for example I didn't use government money for being poor in college because I didn't believe in anyone being paid specifically for being poor. That's the same reason we paid cash for prenatal appointments while I was pregnant with Drake when absolutely everyone else I know used welfare money. Somehow they justify it when the church even specifically says not to go on the welfare roles. It makes the church look really bad, too, because I had someone remark to me when I was at Stanford that they had used Provo Utah as an example of white people who go on welfare in large numbers.

I really don't know how they justify it. There are a number of terrible arguments used for it like "I pay a ton of taxes now." Ehh. Doesn't work, cause so do I. I think what ends up happening to Mormons who don't draw the line ALL the way to being honest and self reliant is that they figure they do all the other things like not robbing banks and stuff like that. But really it is the same thing. Mormons don't rob banks NOT because they are being honest, but because there are a lot of other reasons not to. Usually they aren't in a position to feed their families via shoplifting so they really shouldn't feel good about not doing it. The line should be drawn at being honest at the point at which it is ONLY done BECAUSE it is the wrong thing to do. A lot of things like honoring copyright law get broken by a lot of people I know because YES it might be the wrong thing to do, but they won't get caught and being wrong in ITSELF isn't usually enough to motivate people to not do something.

Case in point that guy who talked to the bishop about stealing Slade's bike before he stole it. The only thing that would have happened is that deep down he knew he was swiping slade's bike, and without any other consequences, doing the right thing isn't enough motivation for most people, if that is the ONLY consequence.

But in terms of the HC parking, it is available because people need it. And the people that need it apparently don't drive to the stores in large numbers. Probably there are few people whith disabilities that drive to the store on a regular basis. I went to the store the other day and there were like ten empty parking spaces that were HC'ed and no one ever uses them. At church there are like a dozen that stay empty all the time while everyone walks from stalls further away. There are a lot of people with bad problems, but to use the proportin of handicapped people to determine number of handicapped stalls will end up leaving a bunch of empty spaces all the time.

It seems like of the people that go to the store my physical problems are probably on par with theirs. And most of them aren't caretaking four minor children and having to do all of the running around associated with that. I figure if people spend like all day getting physically geared up for running to the store for five minutes like I do they probably could use one of these.