March 6th is National Spread the Word to End the Word Day. When you say the word retard or retarded in a derogatory manner towards someone or to indicate you think something is dumb, lame or stupid, it sends a hurtful message to those who live with intellectual disabilities. WORDS MATTER! Please visit http://r-word.org/ to take the pledge to stop using this word. The only R word we should be talking about is RESPECT!
As many of you know, I feel very, very strongly about the use of the R-word. If you don't know my opinion on this, then you probably haven't used this word in front of me. Way to go and thank you! While I hate confrontation almost as much as I hate raisins, this is a topic that I will call someone out on...anywhere, anytime. Most people's response is "I didn't mean it disrespectfully." Too bad - it was. This is a topic in which 'intent' does not matter. It doesn't hurt the person, their friends or their family any less because you qualify it as a joke, a habit or a 'generational thing.'
Okay, I will kindly step off of my soap box, but thank you for taking a minute to indulge my passion.
Happy Wednesday!
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