“People who are powerless and vulnerable attract what
is most beautiful and most luminous in those who are stronger: they call them
to be compassionate, to love intelligently, and not only in a sentimental way.
Those who are weak help those who are more capable to discover their humanity
and to leave the world of competition in order to put their energies at the
service of love, justice, and peace. The weak teach the strong to accept and
integrate the weakness and brokenness of their own lives, which they often hide
behind masks.”
~ Jean Vanier
The Bigotry Behind the Word 'Retard' : By Timothy Shriver
The Washington Post
Monday, February 15, 2010
Professor and author Christopher M. Fairman ["The case
against banning the word 'retard,' " Outlook, Feb. 14] made good arguments
about the limits of language to effect change in behavior and attitude, as well
as about the nuanced ways in which words such as "retard,"
"queer" and "gay" can carry multiple meanings, some of
which intend no insult or humiliation.
But I believe he missed the point of the campaign by people
who have intellectual disabilities, their friends, advocates and tens of
thousands of individuals and dozens of organizations: We are fighting a word
because it represents one of the most stubborn and persistent stigmas in
history. Millions of people have a prejudice they often are not even aware of.
It is much bigger than a word, but words matter. And the word
"retard," whatever its history, reflects a massive problem.
Mental Disability Rights International has found evidence
around the world of horrific conditions -- starvation, abuse, isolation -- in
institutions serving people with intellectual disabilities. It happens in this
country. In Texas, caregivers were recently found to be forcing residents of an
institution to awake in the middle of the night and fight one another while
staffers cheered and taunted. Here in Washington, repeated investigations have
revealed people with intellectual disabilities as the victims of abuse,
indifference and negligent death.
Seventy to 90 percent of people with intellectual
disabilities in the United States are estimated to be unemployed. Special
Olympics studies reveal that more than 60 percent of Americans don't believe
that children with intellectual disabilities should be educated in their
child's school. Special Olympics' work with health-care providers reveals,
among almost all medical professions, a shocking lack of training in the care
of people with intellectual disabilities.
Sadly, it seems that many assume that poor health care, poor
living conditions and underemployment are inevitable. As one health insurance
agent told a parent of a child with Down syndrome seeking health care,
"Ma'am. We're not paying for services. Your child is retarded!"
Our coalition seeks no law to ban words and no official
censorship against those who freely use "retard." Fairman is surely
correct that as language evolves, new words that carry disgusting ridicule will
emerge. He can study them and educate us about their evolution.
But for our part, we are trying to awaken the world to the
need for a new civil rights movement -- of the heart. We seek to educate people
that a crushing prejudice against people with intellectual disabilities is
rampant -- a prejudice that assumes that people with significant learning
challenges are stupid or hapless or somehow just not worth much. They're, um,
"retarded." And that attitude is not funny or nuanced or satirical.
It's horrific.
Last week, I tried to assuage the depression of a Special
Olympics athlete, an adult, who can't stop hearing the taunt of
"retard" that plagued her through school. She has few friends and
struggles with a terrifying sense of isolation. Counseling and medication
aren't enough. There is nowhere she feels she fits in.
Her pain is enough for me to change my language. That's only
a small step and we need many more. But we're not going to get these changes
until and unless we awaken our fellow citizens to the truth: Most of us look
down on people with intellectual disabilities, and we don't even realize it.
And that's why this word is important: "Retard" is
a symbol of a pain few realize exists. Even when it's not directed at people with
intellectual disabilities, it perpetuates that pain and stigma. We hope that
the discussion about ending it will awaken millions to the hope of ending the
discrimination it represents.
If we're successful, the world will discover the joy, hope
and sparkling individuality of millions of people. With that, real change will
come.
It can't come soon enough.
The writer is chairman and chief executive of Special
Olympics.
Foe More Information:
This reminds me of slavery......"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."F.Douglas
ReplyDelete"In the act of dehumanizing others, we dehumanize ourselves."
I believe intelligence is "the ability to learn to see a new world & learn from it. Civility is the ability to see people who are different & respect & love them. If we judge, let us judge others by the beauty of their spirit."
The video is so touching, it made me think of what Jesus said in Mathew 18:3
ReplyDelete"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children,
you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself
like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven."