My family and I spent Thursday at Lagoon. I loved being with the family but Lagoon itself was very boring to me because I was afraid to go one anything that would cause my pain level to skyrocket. I did breakdown and go on Wicked, it was really fun.
Being at Lagoon the main thing I did was people watch, and trust me Lagoon is an interesting place to watch people. The five of us were standing in line for the Log Ride and Michael Kirby, a kid we met through baseball was in line just ahead of us. As we were talking a group of people got off the ride and one of the guys got into a "adult size stroller". Michael turned around and said to me: "See that guy he's not really handicapped, they're just doing that so they don't have to wait in line." To be honest, I tried to ignore Michael. I honestly thought that he was judging the group unfairly. I even told him that you can't see every handicap.
Well, about 45 minutes later Greg, Chris and I were standing in line to go on Wicked, and who should arrive? The group that Michael was talking about. But, SOMEONE ELSE WAS SITTING IN "THE STROLLER"!!!!!!!! Then a while after that I was sitting waiting for my family's turn on the Bumper Cars to end, and who should arrive? You guessed it, the same group. AND SOMEBODY ELSE WAS IN THE STROLLER!!!!! AND THE TWO OTHER GUYS THAT I SAW SITTING IN THE STROLLER WERE PUSHING HIM AND WALKING WITH THE GROUP!!!!!!!!
Seeing this I literally got sick to my stomach. Then I got mad, really mad, but not mad enough because I didn't do a darn thing about it. I honestly don't know what I could have done, if I had said something to them I probably would have gotten a knuckle sandwich. But maybe I should have told a security guard or something.
I can't believe how low people will stoop because they can't be patient and wait their turn! I saw Michael after seeing the group the third time and told him what I saw, and that I was sorry for being so snotty to him. He said something interesting. He told me that he thought that what they were doing was wrong because he thought that they were making fun of people with disabilities.
Even now, when I think about this entire incident, I think it's really sad. Sad because these peoples lives are so pathetic that they have to drop to new lows because they are trying to feel important. Sad because these people most likely think they were being funny. And the saddest thing is that I didn't do or say anything when I should have. I'm disappointed with myself.
Friday, August 22, 2008
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4 comments:
I can't believe that you went on the Wicked! I thought that with your surgery you had to stay very still for that thing to heal and have scar tissue grow to keep it in place!
I am glad that you are feeling well enough to be up and around...but you should probably take it a little easier:)
P.S. Do you still have the info. dvd on your surgery? If so, I would like to maybe borrow it to show my uncle.
That happens all the time. In fact Disney was going to ban their special needs passes (that let you bypass lines) a few years ago for that same reason. I've even seen it abused there like you did at Lagoon. But they got a TON of letters from people who really needed it and they didn't get rid of the pass cards, but they are really picky about giving them out now. You have to go in to their main street office and present your case of why you need help and if they don't believe you, then you have to show them--like take them with you to prove it's needed.
We tried to go without using this pass last week. We made it through about 3 hours before Brandon had had enough of standing around and started screaming. We went to town hall (he was all agitated) they took one look and gave him the pass. I had to head back later that night to find out where all the 'family' restrooms were in the park---you can imagine all the looks you get taking a 9 year old boy in the girls room. (Wade was off playing somewhere else, so it was just me and Brando)
I don't know about you, but we feel pretty guilty using those passes and really try not to if we see a line that we can handle. But then again----it's SO nice to bypass hour long lines!
I have to say that from the perspective of a person with a disabled child that just makes me sick.
We were at Disney World this year and had to use the pass and two of the parks didnt even require us to have the pass because you can tell by looking at Emma that she is disabled, but all over the park there were people using the same passes that obviously did not need them. This kind of fraud ranks right up there with people who park in handicap spaces when they dont have a tag and people who leave grocery carts in handicap spaces (as if a disabled person can just hop out of the car to move them). I actually got two people ticketed today for parking in those spaces at my kids school. It really comes down to common sense and having respect for other people. You should be glad I wasnt present I would have gotten security involved.
The thing that bugs me those most about this situation is that I didn't say anything, but should have.
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