Spread the Word to End the Word

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On March 31 this year, Lions Club International and Special Olympics are kicking off a campaign to end the use of the R-word--"ret*d". I urge everyone on Wrong Planet to get behind this campaign. More information can be found on the Special Olympics website (just google Special Olympics). Come on, everybody, let your voices be heard!

am personally have no problem with the word 'ret*d',as long as its used by someone who is technically 'ret*d' on themselves,the word is also innocently used in medication ,eg-tegretol ret*d [long release tegretol],and fire retardant.

medical people have been giving other terms to use instead of MR for some years [thanks to a pysch a few years ago,am not MR anymore,just an owner of mld/multiple learning disabilities],support staff in the care industry are not allowed to use mentally ret*d either,and can be in trouble with managers if they're heard using the word.

Am think the word should be reclaimed,not hidden away,that is what happened [and is still ongoing] with the words 'cripple'/'crip' and 'spastic'/'spaz',many people with physical disabilities are not bothered by calling themselves a crip,and many CPers refer to themselves as a spaz,it's like saying f-off to those who used it nastily,it's that type of use that has made a lot of words offensive.

That's ret*d, just like when people tried to end the use of the word "n****r". I personally think events like the special olypics have wrecked the word "special" as now anything with it appended makes one immedietly think of disability.

Thinking of disability is wrong?

EDIT:

Although I suppose the usage could be annoying, it is only used this way by people who think disability is funny, or that disability is an impenetrable hell of which the 'victims' should be fluffed-up and pitied. "You're just special".

But it should be flipped or reversed.

"If I'm special then you're bland."

Personally, I think it's all silly linguistic semantics. The word "ret*d" comes from latin "retardare" meaning "slow". There are people who use this word in a derrogatory fashion, but it is the context the malicious speaker is using that is bad and not necessarily the word itself.

We have a lot of uproar spread about the media about someone using one word or another that isn't considered PC without consideration to the intent of the speaker. Not everyone is trying to be malicious, so what's the difference if you refer to someone as a "ret*d" or "special"? Heck, I've heard people use the term "special" in a derrogatory manner.

My point is that because of the sensitive nature of conditions like MR, Autism, etc., people will always have a problem with having someone describe their condition with a word. There follows a great movement to change the terminology, and then eventually that new accepted terminology will be soon just as despised as the first and everyone will rise to have that word silenced as well. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

My advice to those with disabilities: Respect yourself enough and the words of those who would use them maliciously lose their power over you and those that would use them in a respectful manner will not seem so offensive.

Whatever new term they come up with will be a generic insult shortly after it is introduced, as occurred with "special" and any other euphemism. Just stick with the current terminology.

I try not to use terms like "fag" or "ret*d" as catch-all derogatories, but I'm not going to throw a fit if others do.

I know of a few people that are entirely in bliss of the "R" concept. They are to disabled to know much about it. As long as they are happy in life that is all that matters. People can just be mean (like calling someone ret*d) spirited and that's where the true retardation exists, the mean people mentality. Slow to figure out that being mean is ignorance and why those who are happy are the geniuses.

I guess calling a name even to make a reverse of it all is mean as well so that makes me mean. Now to find the bliss to not even bother.