Friday, October 8, 2010

i'm offended = make a law

Special Olympics: Rosa's Law

i'm sure i'll be thought less of for saying this, but do we really need a law passed rebranding mental retardation as "intellectual disability"?... really?... a LAW?

Merriam-Webster defines retardation as slowness of development or progress... disability is a restriction, disadvantage, or impairment... yet the offensive term is the most benign... if you have a retardation, you have a slowed progress... your progress hasn't stopped, just slowed... but if you have a disability, you are impaired and restricted... you're at a disadvantage... a disability often means you cannot succeed... retardation just means it may take longer to succeed...

but i'm not blind to the cause of this law... mean and hateful people have used the term "retard" as a pejorative... there are hundreds of examples of this... many of them, even i am hesitant to utter... or even write on the internet... normal, often technically correct, words are deemed offensive... mainly due to people, whom we would typically disdain anything they might say, using the words in an attempt to hurt other people...

now, so not to offend, the term "retarded" is off limits... to quote Charlie Brown, "Good grief!"... do we really need to make a law every time someone gets offended?... at what point do we make it official and deputize the Thought Police?...

i would say that practice is retarded, but that would imply progress... this law is intellectually disabled.

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