Op-ed: People with intellectual disabilities deserve R-E-S-P-E-C-T
August 18th, 2008
Columnist Christine Schweickert, writing in The State [Columbia, S.C.], says her experience with her older brother Tony has taught her that “retard” is a word that offends her just as much as the “n-word” offends people of color. An excerpt:
if only the rest of society would abandon its unintentional cruelty and quit calling one another “retards.”
Rail against “political correctness” all you want.
All I know is that my brother Tony has never stolen anything, cheated, or told a lie. Never been deliberately cruel. Never intentionally hurt another person.
I think Tony – and those like him – deserves respect for that …

