An improvement project for Selma appearance and a social commentary

Some days, I have to make a trip to the post office here in town. Occasionally, I get to park right in front of the building in the on street parking in front of the facility. I never park far enough down to be in front of the yellow paint on the sidewalk. That paint, by the way, is really fading.

Several times while parked there, a vehicle will come from the opposite direction, swing across the street, park in the wrong direction, right along the yellow no parking area. Then, someone will get out of the car and walk into the post office and walk out just as capably as I am able to do the same. More often than not, the vehicle has a handicapped parking placard in the window, hanging from the rear view mirror.

Not only is the vehicle illegally parked and in the wrong direction on a town street, the driver was disregarding the clearly marked handicapped parking space reserved especially for her. It is not that she needed a handicapped space, but there was a special creation for her use and flaunted it. Apparently the law was something to be flaunted and a handicapped accessibility placard unnecessary. I know several people who legitimately require handicapped parking because of a disability. I know one who refuses to use handicapped parking, even though he has a handicap and was even a posterboy at one time in his life. I am proud of him for that, by the way.

Now this may seem to be rather politically incorrect, but I notice this sort of behavior as being far more prevalent with minorities. That is a sad commentary, but true none the less. Leaving race alone, are people just that plain lazy and disrespectful today? Do some people believe that they are owed something or entitled to do as they please, regardless of the illegality?

That last question has caused me much ponderance over the past few years. I have strengthened my convictions in some areas and changed behaviors in others because of that very question.

One thing that has been needed for years is a repainting of no parking zones with bright, perhaps reflective yellow paint. That would help with the identification of such zones and help with the appearance of the town.

Repaint, ye sinners, repaint...for the scofflaw driveth nigh.