2001
| We went
to Sea World because my son is alive, if in a wheel chair, and that was
worth celebrating after 14 months of chemo, side-effect infections and a
Spinal Meningitis coma. He is partially deaf now and has nerve damage in his feet, hence the wheelchair. He can walk - short distances and for limited time. He has up weeks and down weeks. He's had physical therapy. Twice. And relapses. And we are working on it. He was not approved for a plane flight for this trip, since he is an active cancer patient and his counts are unstable, so we drove. It is, as we well know, an 8.5 hour drive from Fremont to San Diego. And, even leaving at 4AM, it means a long drive, high heat for a child who is uncomfortable being upright that long a period of time. We chose to drive one day, visit the San Diego house (between tenants and needing attention) and spend the night at a hotel down on the Circle. Hotel Circle is near Sea World. And Sea World is where he wanted to go the next day. We would spend a day and then drive back on the third day, just in time for his next treatment. Tight schedule. We had an application for handicap parking that was not yet completed (takes a Drs. Signature and a trip to the DMV) since most days that I am home early - this was on Mondays - the DMV chooses to be closed. So it was waiting for the home day to shift to Wednesdays, which was to occur in Mid-July. We did have a disability ID card - but no car tag. It has not been a problem before since 90% of the driving I do with him in the car is to the hospital, which has only TWO handicap parking spaces and there has never been a time when I used them. Parking is a free-for-all in the hospital parking lot and I have learned to live with it, timing our visits to low parking crush times. I learned the pattern early. After 10 months of daily trips, it did not take long. If needs be, I drop him off and run for a space, any space I can crank the truck into. When I pulled into the parking lane at Sea World, I had a $20 bill out, since preferred parking is $12.00 and I was prepared to pay for that. Paying $12.00 to park at an attraction that charges what it does to enter, and $5.00 for a soda once you get in, is nothing. If you are not prepared for parking fees, you will not be able to handle the park. I asked the attendant if preferred parking was close, since I had a child in a wheelchair. A BIG child (240 lbs) in a wheelchair. So here I was with a $20.00 bill and a question. He asked if I had a handicap placard for the car. I said no. He even looked - walking around the car - after I said that I did not have one. He knew I did not have one. There was not question. He then gave me back change - for a $5 parking fee - not the preferred parking - and directed me to handicap parking. I asked if I could be there without a placard. He told me yes. He wanted me to move along. I thought it was strange but I followed where they directed me - "C4". This is a tourist park and the parking is private - or so I believed. The assumption is that they know what they are doing. I guess not. I did note that, for future reference, Preferred Parking is right next to handicap parking. Preferred parking, remember, is where I had expected to go. After seven hours at Sea World, during which I was documenting the lack of handicap awareness as I strained to push my son up and down hills, or hauled him out of the chair into the stands, I came out to find a parking ticket on my truck. A $350.00 parking ticket. Not fair! So I left the ticket envelope on the car under the wiper where it had been and took the ticket itself and my son to the Customer Services window. They said, after much mumbling, that "they could do nothing" - even if their own people had put me in that parking space. They said I could appeal the ticket - and pointed to the number on the back of the ticket. Appealing the ticket from 500 miles away is a hardship. On the way back to the car, we found a second set of parking cops creating a second ticket. They were creating the second ticket because they "hadn't seen the first one" - prominently displayed under the windshield wiper. They told me that, "Oh well, it was too late to stop the print out", they'd "Have to give me a second one." Another $350.00. But I could "Call the number on the back and appeal the second ticket," they said This was a different group of parking cops and a different address for the ticket. They pointed this out. They issued this ticket to my son, sitting in his wheelchair. I then watched them go down a line of cars dinging one car after the other. Expired dates, they said. Not visible. Whatever. They went merrily on their way, leaving havoc behind them. They are proud of what they are doing. Creating a whole group of unhappy Sea World visitors. A whole group of unhappy San Diego visitors. Visitors with disabled children in their cars who had brought their sick kids to San Diego to Sea World. Not a very friendly thing to do. I now have that ugly red handicap placard (temp card). I refuse to get the branding put on my license plate. (If truth be known, I am probably qualified to have the permanent placard myself. I have not chosen that route. Not until I am desperate. I will clutch my inhaler and walk. That fact I tend to collapse in heat - a new trick my body does to me - notwithstanding.) And I have the same reaction to getting the placard for my son as I have had all along. It is like putting a gold star on a Jew in Germany while Hitler was in office. I resent having to have it. I resent having to display it. And you have to pay for it too. Let's look at this. You have a child fighting for his life. You are told to brand this child and pay for the brand, through DMV no less. And if the brand is not properly displayed, you will have imposed on you a horrendous fine, a fine on the already economically burdened handicapped child and their family. Oh, this makes good sense! Who thought this up? Can we say collusion? Sea World and San Diego acting together as they are must be really cleaning up on this one. |
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