THE WORD HEARD AROUND THE WORLD: I’m going to start off by saying there are two e-mails going around about me & this subject. One says I called her daughter (w special needs) Retarded (which I would NEVER do) the other just says I said the word retarded & she asked me to take it down. NEITHER ever happened!! Her post had NOTHING to do with ME. She posted originally that if anyone EVER says the word retarded or makes short bus jokes to delete yourself because anyone who uses that language is not welcome to be her friend. I simply commented on that post. My original comment was something like “personally I think you are being too sensitive. I’ve used the word to refer to someone who’s acting like an idiot or a situation, but that I would never use the word to refer to someone with a disability. I think words only have power if you give it to them.” It was longer & more thought out, but this is basically the original message – This comment caused complete strangers to personally attack me. Both in the thread and by sending mass e-mails to my friends, family & strangers telling them one of the two stories I mentioned before (who does that?!) I’ve had people ask me if I would feel different about the word if my child had special needs. I say ABSOLUTLY NOT. I would not go out of my way to teach my child that if they hear this particular word that is a word of HATE against THEM! Why teach them a connotation to a word you cannot keep them from hearing, but you can prevent it from breaking their heart if they do. It is a simple word & I think mostly it’s said as a joke between friends, not a word of HATE to hurt people…so why make it one? That is all. (frankly I’m so OVER this whole thing)
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:07:09 +0000
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