By Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson.

Refuting an op-ed in support of the use of the word “retard,” Gerson says what is worst about the current public conversation is “a dismissive attitude toward the struggles of the disabled.”

People who wish to understand the context of the current debate, Gerson says, would do well to study a prominent 20th century American movement that sought to direct human evolution by eliminating the supply of people with developmental and physical disabilities in the population. Called the eugenics movement, it targeted for elimination a number of groups identified as “socially unfit,” including the “feebleminded,” “epileptics,” the “insane,” the “deformed,” and the “deaf.” Forced sterilization of the “unfit” was endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court and did not end in the United States until the 1970s.

An excerpt:

Given this history, the r-word does not seem so innocuous. And defending it does not seem so heroic. [Christopher M.] Fairman can have his cherished f-word, which merely soils and trivializes the sex act. But defending the r-word is not the protection of free expression; it is the defense of bullies.

… There is not an exact correlation between vileness of speech and vileness of character, but there is a rough correlation. Words such as the r-word and the n-word often reveal aggression, contempt and hatred. They are a form of verbal violence. In these cases, what Fairman calls “self-censorship” is really kindness and moral judgment. And what he regards as free expression is just rude, abusive and cruel.

… Yes, government involvement in the censorship of words is dangerous. But what the Special Olympics is proposing –- encouraging people to take a personal pledge against the derogatory use of the r-word –- is not government censorship, it is social stigma. In this case, such stigma is a sign of moral maturity.

I have signed the pledge at www.r-word.org. I hope you do as well.

Related columns by Michael Gerson.

Just ten years ago, writes Oregon state legislator Sara Gelser, her state closed a notorious institution that had lost its federal funding amid charges of widespread abuse and neglect. Now, she says, Oregon has become the first state in the nation to serve all of its citizens with developmental disabilities in their own communities. An excerpt from Gelser’s op-ed in the Portland Oregonian:

Oregon can be proud to be the first state in the nation to have fully transformed its developmentally disabled system into one that affirms equality and human dignity. In other parts of the country, advocates still raise alarms about the conditions that persist for thousands of children and adults living in their state institutions. Many of those states look to Oregon for advice about how to improve their service systems. We must continue our efforts to improve Oregon’s developmental disability service system, and must never forget the abuses of the past. However, with the 10th anniversary of Fairview’s closure, we should take a moment to celebrate our progress.

Today, Oregonians with developmental disabilities are no longer deemed “inmates” of an institution.

Instead, they are neighbors and friends.

That is progress.

Gelser is the mother of a person with an intellectual disability. Earlier post here.

Alexa Posny, the recently confirmed assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, tells  Education Week that she became a special educator after seeing a childhood playmate barred from school because he had Down syndrome. Posny is 57, according to the Washington Post. An excerpt:

Q. What inspired you to work in special education?

A. During my childhood, I learned that children with disabilities often were not educated the way other children were. One of my playmates was a child with intellectual disabilities (Down syndrome). Although he would play with me and other children in my neighborhood, I soon discovered that he did not go to school.

At that time, I could never understand why he was never with us. He was more like us than unlike us, but he never entered the school door. Thirty some years later, the lives of students with disabilities have greatly improved and I have been engaged in this field during this entire time.

(Photo from allgov.com)

Writing in the Baltimore Sun, Peter V. Berns calls for the passage of “Rosa’s Law,” a bipartisan bill that would replace the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” with “intellectual disability ” and “individual with an intellectual disability” in federal health, education and labor policy statutes.

Berns says the bill is very important for Americans with intellectual disabilities, who have endured a long history of oppression, mistreatment, and abuse, including imprisonment in institutions, forced sterilizations, and exclusion from schools, the workplace and society at large. An excerpt:

Sadly, the same general enlightenment that now mostly spares racial and ethnic minorities from the cruelty of pejorative words has not yet been attained as it relates to people with intellectual disabilities. It is no longer socially acceptable to mock people of African-American, Latino or Asian descent, for example. But the words “retard” and “retarded” are still widely used and accepted as an insult in our homes and schoolyards and on our movie and TV screens.

Maybe people are simply unaware that intellectual disabilities result from genetics, prenatal alcohol exposure, poor nutrition, injury, illness and other unknown causes. Or could the public at large be so callous that they don’t care that people with intellectual disabilities are hurt and shamed by demeaning references?

… We must stand up for our citizens with intellectual disabilities. Senator [Barbara] Mikulski’s bill is a necessary step to help stop the use of degrading terminology. By introducing the word “disability” into the parlance, perhaps the global society will begin to understand the legitimacy of the condition and treat those living with it in a just and humane manner.

Peter V. Berns is executive director of The Arc of the United States.

See also:

Put a little thought into the power of words to hurt — Column by Anna Griffin in The [Portland] Oregonian

From AP/Boston Herald, AP/[Waltham, MA] Daily News Tribune:

Two Massachusetts legislators have filed bills seeking to redress historic abuses that took place in the state’s Fernald School, which opened in 1848 and is slated to close next year.

The institution, which is the nation’s oldest publicly funded facility for people with developmental disabilities, was the site of Cold War experiments including some by MIT and Quaker Oats Co. in which children were fed radioactive oatmeal. Other children were erroneously institutionalized as “morons” even though tests showed them to be normal.

Rep. Thomas Sannicandro (D-Ashland) has filed a bill seeking a state apology for alleged civil rights violations, and Rep. Thomas Stanley (D-Waltham) has filed a bill seeking a formal investigation of the misclassifications of patients.

“Everybody there was abused, and we should be all-encompassing as a commonwealth and say we made a mistake,” said Sannicandro, whose own son has Down syndrome.

See also:

The State Boys Rebellion, book by Michael D’Antonio

The voice of a lost generation; Freddie Boyce survived neglect at Fernald, radiation experiments, and told the story — Boston Globe

From the Contra Costa [CA] Times:

Mary Crosby, the director of an elementary education program at a California’s Dominican University, has been honored for creating a curriculum to train teachers to teach children with disabilities in inclusive classrooms.

The Marin Community Foundation recognized Crosby’s 36 years at Dominican with an achievement award and $10,000.

Crosby said that when she came to Dominican in 1972, few elementary students with physical or mental disabilities were permitted to attend classes with their peers; some school districts would not accept students with disabilities at all.

(Contra Costa Times photo)

Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Luaine Lee compares reality television to a P.T. Barnum sideshow of “freaks and geeks.” An excerpt:

Of course, when Barnum turned tiny Charles Sherwood Stratton into Tom Thumb, the most famous little person in the world, he had no idea that 21st-century America would follow his lead with The Little Couple and Little People, Big World.

… Barnum never had it so good.

(The Roloffs from “Little People, Big World,” TLC photo)