My grandmother no longer drives, so I use her car. It has a disability parking permit, which allows me to park anywhere I want without paying. I feel a little guilty about it and thought maybe I should give it up. On the other hand, am I doing anything wrong by just leaving it there?

Answer:

I can come up with several arguments in favor of keeping the permit, and only one argument in favor of giving it up.

Let's look at the arguments in favor of keeping the permit:

  • You already pay taxes, so why pay for parking?
  • You never claimed to be disabled. If the parking cops get the wrong idea, that's their problem.
  • Parking costs are highway robbery. It's a way for municipalities to get rich.
  • You often do errands for your grandmother with her car, so she is the one benefiting.
  • People use disability parking permits that don't belong to them all the time. The city knows this and allows for it in their budgeting.
  • The car still belongs to your grandmother, who rightfully had the disability permit. So why get rid of it? Do you need to purge the car of any trace of her? What if her music is still in the CD player, must you throw that away too?

But after all those arguments for keeping it, I can think of a single argument in favor of giving it up:

  • It is dishonest and probably illegal.

The human mind has an amazing talent. We take something that is clearly wrong, and come up with creative explanations as to why it is right. We call this talent “justification.” Almost everyone has a dishonest side, an inner voice that attempts to whitewash wrongdoing and justify immorality.

But we have another side to us that is honest and upright, the voice of integrity that wants to do what's right. After all the justifications, we know the truth.

The Torah (Deut. 6:18) tells us, "And you shall do what is proper and good..." You know what you need to do. Give up the permit. And thank G‑d that you don't need it.