Writing in the [Brisbane, Australia] Courier-News, Liberal Senator Sue Boyce calls for a global celebration of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21st. Boyce has an adult daughter with Down syndrome. An excerpt:

The world would be a much, much poorer place without people with Down syndrome. Forget the stereotypes – they aren’t “all so loving” and while all the people with Down syndrome I know “really enjoy music and dancing” so do most of the non-DS people I know.

But most people with Down syndrome I know demonstrate an ingenuousness, an ability to cut through to the basic humanity of others and a delight in simple things that enriches my world and the world of everyone who knows them.

The theme chosen for this year’s World Down Syndrome Day is “Aim High Enough”.

It’s from a piece of advice that an old villager gave Langdon Down and that he passed on to his medical students: “My lad, you take your aim; be sure you aim high enough. That’s the thing – aim high enough.”

As a society, we owe it to ourselves to ensure that we are never satisfied that we have aimed high enough in supporting people with Down syndrome into the mainstream.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 4:33 am and is filed under Down syndrome, commentary, international. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post