Obama on the Special Olympics
Oh lordy. I didn't see this but I read about it and my intial reaction was "Dude, noooo." Because we parents of special needs kiddos can be some touchy people. No offense me and everyone else, but come on..you know it's true. And it's not for nothing- our kiddos and other people with disabilities have been some of the most marginalized by society through out history and into recent history and heck, even present day.
My daughter and I were out and she was flapping her hands and shaking her head (this was quite a while back when she still did that to deal with the stress of being so close to strangers). Anyway a lady near us said loudly enough for me to hear (you know in that "I'm purposely speaking loudly enough for you to hear" tone that kids "like that" should be kept at home so that other people don't need to be subjected to their behaviour. My daughter was no flapping her hands in this woman's face, she was disturbing nothing and no one other than being fairly obviously autistic which was apparently a crime in this woman's eyes. What killed me about the whole thing? WE WERE AT THE GROCERY STORE. Is my family not supposed to eat so that this woman's delicate sensibilities are not disturbed by my daughter's existence? This is not an isolated incident. Some friends of mine and I (all with special needs kiddos) had a list of our favourite inappropriate comments people had made. Well..it started out like a list..but if we had actually written it would have been a fair sized book.
I wish people would start thinking of the words "retarded" and "retard" and "short bus" like they think of the n-word. If you wouldn't say something about a race don't say it about a disability. "Stop acting like such a Hispanic" "I felt like such an Asian when I forgot your phone number"
And Obama? Duuuude. I admit I would have laughed. If a friend said it. In private..not on LENO for pete's sake. I would have laughed and said "Man, you are sooo wrong" But you are the President. You just need to not say the words "Special Olympics" or "Short bus" outside the context of "We are so looking forward to attending the Special Olympics" and "That is an awfully short bus, do you think we'll all fit?" *
* (Note- as far as I know the words "short bus" never crossed his lips. It's just a phrase that's quite popular lately)
My daughter and I were out and she was flapping her hands and shaking her head (this was quite a while back when she still did that to deal with the stress of being so close to strangers). Anyway a lady near us said loudly enough for me to hear (you know in that "I'm purposely speaking loudly enough for you to hear" tone that kids "like that" should be kept at home so that other people don't need to be subjected to their behaviour. My daughter was no flapping her hands in this woman's face, she was disturbing nothing and no one other than being fairly obviously autistic which was apparently a crime in this woman's eyes. What killed me about the whole thing? WE WERE AT THE GROCERY STORE. Is my family not supposed to eat so that this woman's delicate sensibilities are not disturbed by my daughter's existence? This is not an isolated incident. Some friends of mine and I (all with special needs kiddos) had a list of our favourite inappropriate comments people had made. Well..it started out like a list..but if we had actually written it would have been a fair sized book.
I wish people would start thinking of the words "retarded" and "retard" and "short bus" like they think of the n-word. If you wouldn't say something about a race don't say it about a disability. "Stop acting like such a Hispanic" "I felt like such an Asian when I forgot your phone number"
And Obama? Duuuude. I admit I would have laughed. If a friend said it. In private..not on LENO for pete's sake. I would have laughed and said "Man, you are sooo wrong" But you are the President. You just need to not say the words "Special Olympics" or "Short bus" outside the context of "We are so looking forward to attending the Special Olympics" and "That is an awfully short bus, do you think we'll all fit?" *
* (Note- as far as I know the words "short bus" never crossed his lips. It's just a phrase that's quite popular lately)