Re: sturdy old apple

[glhansen@steel.ucs.indiana.edu (Gregory L. Hansen)]

In article <2qKdnYfBYKEC7ZvcRVn-tw@comcast.com>,
Bill Garber <willy46pa@comcast DOT net> wrote:
>
>"Gregory L. Hansen" <glhansen@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote in
>message news:ce5oku$g09$1@hood.uits.indiana.edu...
>:
>: "Retarded" didn't used to be a slur, it was
>: a clinical term.  E.g. from www.dictionary.com,
>
>The total phrase, "mentally retarded", refers to
>their condition, not their being. Just as I have
>Bipolar Disorder, it is a condition I possess,
>not who I am. I am not Bipolar. Once in public

Oh, you're not bipolar, you're a person who is bipolar.  That makes all 
the difference!  You really think adding more syllables to a designation 
will affect people's attitudes?

A friend of mine once had his grammar corrected when he referred to 
handicapped people.  No, they're people with disabilities.  He happened to 
have been the president of the college's Disabled Student Union, and had a 
handicapped sticker on his license plate, and was able to retort "And what 
have you done to help the handicapped, besides correct my grammar?"

>a guy leaned over to me and started to refer to
>the people working in the establishment, it was
>a restaurant, as mental. I leaned in more and
>simply said that I took offense to it and had
>I not been medicated, he may have been in for
>more than he had bargained for.  :o)
>
>: "slow or limited in intellectual or emotional
>: development characterized by mental retardation".
>: And that is completely accurate.
>
>Yes, that is correct.
>
>: But words get used up and need to be changed
>: now and then.
>
>Need to be, I hardly agree. People just get tired
>of using the same words to express themselves, and
>it is usually under the age of 30 that change them.
>It's a rebellion thing. BTW, I'm 50.

Or they're administrators.

>
>: I have a sister who works in a group home, and
>: a friend that had worked in a different home for
>: several years.  And the "tards" were called
>: residents.  Until it got changed to customers.
>: And then to consumers. And I haven't been
>: keeping track of all of them, but it keeps
>: changing in the interest of being sensitive.
>
>Many of them are not so badly infirmed, how's that
>for a term, that they actually live in the public
>eye. I have a niece who is MR and she lives at home
>with her mother. She works, pays taxes, and becomes
>involved in many of the same activities as you or
>I do. You think MR are bad, try autistic. They most
>of the time have no clue which end is up, and if you
>change one thing about their lives, they lash out.
>
>: At my sister's home the staff just calls them kids.
>
>"Kids" are baby goats. Unruly creatures that get into
>things they shouldn't and have no idea that it's wrong.
>If that's what you want your child to be, go ahead and
>call them "kids".  :o)

Kids are also children.

>
>: At the home my friend worked at, they didn't even
>: have the language skills, or in many cases the ability
>: to hear, such that it would ever have been possible for
>: them to take offense-- they didn't have the level of
>: mental development required to wipe their own butts,
>: so the workers wiped butts for them.
>
>Many deaf children were misdiagnosed as MR, when they
>weren't at all. But they learned to be MR to please
>the people who thought that they were. Of course now
>they have more extensive tests that reveal the truth.
>
>: It would only be a matter of time.  "Special" is
>: already a slur, e.g. the article in The Onion about
>: "the very Special Forces" in Iraq.
>
>Special means having higher ability, or extraodinary
>skills. Hardly meets the criteria of the MR. Unless
>they are deaf or near deaf, then they do, sign language!

It also means special education, Special Olympics, children with special 
needs.  Depending on the context, adding the word "special" is as good as 
calling someone a tard.  The meaning of a word depends on how it's used, 
and when mentally challenged children (sorry, that should have been 
children with mental challenges) are called special, then special no 
longer just means higher ability or extraordinary skills.  It also means 
people that don't know how to wipe their own butts.  The Onion had a 
satirical article about the "Very Special Forces", but the Green Berets 
in real life sometimes have to put up with dumb jokes about the word 
"Special" in "Special Forces".  When you change the way a word is used 
you change its meaning, and that's how words wear out, and sometimes 
turn into slurs or jokes.


-- 
"Don't try to teach a pig how to sing.  You'll waste your time and annoy 
the pig."