Unappreciated Soldiers

Today, we went to a local store to purchase pet supplies and as we walked in, we glanced at items that were displayed on tables outside of the store.

While we were shopping, we saw one of the clerks run out to talk to a man in a wheelchair who was looking at the tables. We couldn’t hear what was being said but saw their faces. We could tell that the man was angry. Then, we saw the clerk begin to move some of the display tables.

Right away, we understood that the man couldn’t get by the display tables in his wheelchair and he was angry with the clerk for blocking the sidewalk.

We could hear that clerk telling another clerk about what happened as we checked out. She was saying that she couldn’t believe how angry he was over something so unimportant. We told her that it might not seem important to her but to someone in a wheelchair, being unable to get past barriers like that is very important.

The part that broke our hearts was that she informed us that the man was an ex-soldier who lost the use of his legs in Iraq. He had told the clerk that nobody cares about soldiers who fight for America and then come home disabled.

When we heard that, we went out to try to find the man to tell him how much we appreciate all that he did for us and for our country and to apologize for not noticing that the tables blocked wheelchair access. It was too late. We couldn’t find him. We were unable to do or say anything to help his self esteem or make him feel appreciated.

Please everyone, learn from our mistake. If you notice anything that blocks wheelchair access, take action right away. Anything that blocks wheelchair access is kind of like a bully who won’t let a kid enter through a door. You would stop a bully, right? So take action on barriers that block wheelchair access, okay?

We need to let our soldiers know how much we appreciate what they are doing and what they sacrificed for us and for our country any way we can. Do you have any ideas on how we can get that message out more to our soldiers?