YOUR COMMENTS

If YOU want a close -up parking spot just use the FIRE LANE like most people do. Really really REALLY gets my blood boiling when I see that. hOW BOut a piece on that? Next time you go to a store, take notice how many actually do that. As I enter the store I usually wonder OUT LOUD if they couldn't find a spot
- Tony, Manch

Michael Carr et al, you illustrate that entitlements aren't charity. Actual charity--say, I giving up my parking space for someone in need--would involve scrutiny that the person was really in need, and withdrawal of the charity if I saw I were being used. The entitlement was enacted specifically to preclude scrutiny (and to establish yet another excuse for government dictating the use of private property). Many people who use the privilege don't need it, including one person in town who just attacked the welfare state to me and induced me to cite handicapped parking as an instance. They had a defense of their placard, which was true at the time. "And it isn't really stealing, and I don't use it often." As always, the waste of our money is trivial compared to the destruction of the American character.

Now, Mr. McQuaid, do you no longer have access to a copy editor?
- Spike, Brentwood NH

Mr. McQaid,
These last two editorials are great. I, unlike some people, get the joke, and it is hysterical.

I too ponder the sames thughts when I see someone with t he placard get out of their car in the rain and jog into the store.

It is a shame that some people cannot understand a good ribbing when they read it.

One last thing, When I lived back in RI I had a neighbor whose wife was walking disabled, she had had a hip replacement that went seriously wrong and there was significant damage to the muscles and tendons and she walked with a cane. SHe applied for and was granted a placard. Now her husband Jim use to take her to the nearby supermarket and I noticed that everytime I saw them there he would pull up to the front entrance and drop her off and then park in the handicapped spot and wait for her to come out. So one day I was over there watching a ballgame on T.V. and I asked him why he does that and he said well I don't want her to have to walk trough the parking lot. Admirable I thought, he then said that he always no matter where they go does the same thing. So I asked him why he even used the placard when he could drop her off at the door and watch for her and then drive up to her from a regular space. He said and this is the gods honest truth "Well we go dancing every Friday night and sometimes I have a little too much to drink and it is easier for her to guide me to the car if it is in one of the closest parking spots."

Also Mr Mquaid, I am going to use the injured hand defense for my tiping errors too.
- Steve Micke, Freedom

I suggest this legislation: people who use handicap parking spaces illegally will be made handicapped. There, we can make them legal again. I'm an idea man.
- Tom, Dover-Foxcroft, Me.

There would be no problem with the handicapped placards if the law was followed. It specifically states that the placard can ONLY BE USED when the handicapped individual is IN the vehicle. It's not meant for daughter Judy to run to the mall, or the wife to drop by Wal-Mart. As a "walking disabled" (read the law) placard holder I get upset when my wife takes me somewhere and some yahoo has parked ILLEGALLY in a handicapped parking spot. I don't know why the law is not enforced, but I guess there are bigger fish to fry. Just speaking my peace.
- Michael Carr, Epping, NH

Here's some help for your one-handed shift-key use.

Windows XP:
Start -> Control Panel -> Accessibility Options -> StickyKeys

OS X:
Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Universal Access -> Keyboard tab -> StickyKeys
- Matthew, Manchester