Burning a Bonfire

You know? I'm just going to type it out here: a response to my own response to Ann Coulter's vile slur against not only the President of the United States but all the children I know and don't know with an intellectual disability, the children, like Sophie, formerly (not formally) known as retards -- 

I'm tired of the comments that claim Ann Coulter is a bitch who is more an entertainer than a journalist or even spokesperson for the Republican party and that any outrage expressed is fuel for her, that we should just turn our heads and not cry, Stop! but rather be silent, ignore her and move on.

I would rather build a bonfire.

Here's another remarkable essay by the writer Robert Rummel-Hudson who says just about everything that I'd say, sans bonfire, including this:

If Liberals excuse her remarks because we think she's a buffoon who is clearly desperate for attention, we become complicit. If Conservatives distance themselves from her and say "Well, she doesn't speak for me, so I have no duty to rebuke her," they are also complicit, because it's not a political issue. It might be a little different if she were abusing communities with any power or any privilege, groups that could push back.

Read the rest here.

Retard

Got your attention?

Good. May that be the last time you see the word displayed so prominently.

Today is the annual Spread the Word to End the Word Day. I've said enough about it, so I'm not going to say anything else. Read this for some perfectly perfect remarks about the word.


And read this, an essay that my ten year old son Oliver wrote all by himself as his submission to the No Name Calling Week contest:

 “RETARDED” AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

By Oliver 

The word “retarded.” What is its beauty and what is its downside and what does it mean? The question remains. When I get home from school, I wonder to myself about some of my friends and just anyone in general who says the word “retarded” whether they really know what that word means. And all the times when they say it, are they sure that they know what it means and are they sure that when they say it, they are not hurting anyone's feelings around them? The question remains. People think the word “retarded” means dumb, stupid and lots more hurtful things. All of those words hurt my feelings because my sister is cognitively disabled, which means it's harder for her to learn than it is for people with a normal brain. She can't walk without help and can't talk either, but that doesn't mean she's stupid or dumb. She stills knows how to think and interact with other people; she is just different. When people use the word “retarded” as a put-down or a joke, it hurts me and my sister and all the people like her. I wish they would stop.

It's not acceptable

Along with Robert Rummel-Hudson's brilliant piece on it, and my friend Jeneva's recent blog posts, HERE and HERE, the television series Glee is getting in on the campaign to end the use of the word retard. I have friends who still use the word around me -- apologetically, of course -- but they just don't seem to get it. Maybe this will help: