If you're not handicapped, don't use a handicapped space

The holiday spirit seems to have evaporated this week from people who are not handicapped usurping handicapped parking spaces! I am a nurse who has had recent ankle surgery and am on crutches with limited weight-bearing, yet I have been unable to find a single handicapped parking space in Towson Town Center Mall or Cranbrook Shopping Center in Cockeysville.

Instead, spaces are occupied by un-handicapped people who zoom into spaces right under my nose. Today I was leaning on my crutches, waiting for my husband in front of a handicapped parking space, where a non-handicapped woman sat in her parked SUV, talking on her cell phone. I stared at her, hoping she would move so my husband could pull in and park. No luck! She glared back at me with a look like she'd take me out!

Hey people, we need those spaces! They are not there for people too lazy or too harried to find a legal place to park. I have no idea why the police aren't cruising these areas issuing tickets to these thoughtless idiots. Their budgets would certainly benefit in these lean times and make the holidays a bit cheerier for those of us either temporarily or permanently handicapped.

On the other side, I have experienced wonderful kindness from un-handicapped people holding doors, carrying packages, finding places for me to sit, and offering encouraging words. The horns must pop out as soon as people get into their cars!

Pamela Kramer, Cockeysville