Going out to a nice restaurant on a date isn’t as common as it used to be. Times are tough, and many families simply can’t afford to go out to a restaurant every night.
One Coob County, Georgia, family’s trip to Mellow Mushroom to meet some friends on Thursday night was largely ruined by a stranger who left an insulting and ignorant note on the family’s car, which had been parked in a handicapped spot.
The family’s 5-year-old daughter has a severe disability which does not manifest itself in physical deformities but rather through mental disabilities and severe exhaustion.
“She has Chiari malformation. It’s where part of the brain comes out of the skull and it affects nearly every part of her life,” Alyssa Steele, her mother, told WSB.
“We’ve been through a lot. I mean she’s worn a helmet and has worn leg braces most of her life, on oxygen for over a year,” she said.
After the family finished their meal, they went back to their car and Steele’s husband spotted the note and tried to hide it. It didn’t work; Alyssa read the note anyway.
“You are not handicapped. You are a sorry sack of s***. Merry Christmas! I have reported your license tag to Cobb Sheriff’s Dept,” read the note.
The family had government-issued handicapped plates and handicapped stickers in the window. This cowardly vigilante should have noticed those before trying to play cop.
In fact, given that he apparently couldn’t read the very clear handicapped marking on the vehicle, one is forced to wonder who he got to write the note for him.
The family was understandably upset because of the cruelness of one ignorant stranger. We’ve all seen people parked in handicapped spots when they shouldn’t be, but this note went too far.
“It’s really sad that people could be so quick to judge others and I don’t understand how they thought it was their place to say anything, let alone how they phrased what they said,” Steele explained.
For her part, Steele said that she wants to increase awareness for disabilities that may not be obvious to the causal observer.
“I definitely was hurt and it made me question how people can do something like that and I wanted to change the situation from how we are affected by that to how we can spread awareness on how other people are struggling with disabilities that are not seen to the eye,” Steele stated
Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let’s hope the jerk who did this sees it and realizes his ignorant mistake.
What do you think should happen to the person who left this note?
