Billboard Sign Insults The Disabled

[billy007]

from www.wjxx.com:

By Mike Deeson
WTSP-TV Tampa

OCALA, FL -- Some say it is a sign of the times, while others believe it is a sign of ignorance. And some think it's a sign that people will go to any length to offend.

A business in Ocala has a billboard that most people can't believe. A sign for an auto repair shop and a fence company has a marquee that makes fun of disabled people.

The sign reads: "WHAT HAS 4 WHEELS AND FLIES? A DEAD CRIPPLE IN A WHEELCHAIR"

"I don't see anything funny about it," says Carol Terrillion, the program director at the Center for Independent Living. Terrillion has been in a wheel chair for almost all of her life. After she heard about the sign, she drove out to try to talk to the owners of the company.

"The owners wouldn't talk to us or anyone else either," Terrillion explains. In fact, sheriff's deputies were called out after workers muscled some reporters from Orlando. The company locked its doors and everyone hid inside the office.

William Kennedy. Center for Independent Living:

"They're bold enough to put up the sign, but not bold enough to talk about it," says a disgusted William Kennedy, the executive director at the Center for Independent Living.

The company that put up the sign calls itself the "Good Guys," although some people say they aren’t good guys at all. This isn’t the first time the Good Guys has irritated people with messages on their sign.

Another sign they had posted said, "TAKE YOUR EX OUT TONIGHT, ONE BULLET OUGHTTA DO IT"

"They seem determined to insult people," says Kennedy. "What kind of brilliant marketing strategy is that?"

Kennedy plans to organize a boycott of the company with his own sign, and he says he hopes they go out of business.

While the company has a First Amendment right to post an offensive sign, the public has a right to boycott, and Kennedy and Terrillion both hope the company will eventually post a sign saying "out of business."

video

[Wickett]

Wellll... that should test the ol' "any publicity is good publicity" theory...

[vhrocker]

"TAKE YOUR EX OUT TONIGHT, ONE BULLET OUGHTTA DO IT"

[Van Squalen]

Words fail.

[broken9500]

god bless this company....

[Double Down]

Just another example of the deterioration of common decency in our society.

Friggin' ridiculous.

[Menlow]

I hope the person responsible for the sign isn't breeding.

[ZeoBandit]

[chefcraig]

When I was growing up, "dead baby" jokes were quite popular, and went along well with the rather demented sense of humor a young person gains from Mad magazine and healthy viewings of "Monte Python's Flying Circus".

The fact is, the jokes were quite crude and at times tasteless, yet they were certainly not demeaning to anyone.

This is meanspirited garbage, used as advertising. There is zero humor to be found in it, only shame and embarrassment.

A pox on those that came up with it and display it. Wanna bet their mechanics aren't even A.S.E. certified?

[voivod]

When I was growing up, "dead baby" jokes were quite popular, // The fact is, the jokes were quite crude and at times tasteless, yet they were certainly not demeaning to anyone.

Did you ever think about the dead baby's feelings?

[chefcraig]

Did you ever think about the dead baby's feelings?

Not really, as they were quite dead.

[wham bam will rock]

Local muffler shop.....

Their tagline:


"There's NO MUFF TOO TUFF!"

[wham bam will rock]

I hope the person responsible for the sign isn't breeding.

They ARE breeding.....




with their cousins and sisters.

[AT]

I didn't know what to think when I read the dealine. I thought the insult would be a little more "coded" or requiring some interpretation.

Nope. Those responsible for putting that absolutely awful shit up on public display need to have their asses kicked repeatedly. Fuck them. There is nothing funny about that sign at all.

[Executionor]

When I was growing up, "dead baby" jokes were quite popular, and went along well with the rather demented sense of humor a young person gains from Mad magazine and healthy viewings of "Monte Python's Flying Circus".

Along those same lines, when I was a wee lad, we use to knock down a tall boy budweiser or coors and say, well, there is another dead soldier. I have no idea why that was said, but I see now how ridiculous that was to say that and I do thank goodness no veteran ever heard us say that because that was so ignorant and immature beyond belief. I was embarrassed to myself the other day when I thought about that. I remember the dead baby jokes as well. What a different time the 70s and 80s were.