The IACC is not an agency to distribute services. However, it is a group to coordinate research. Finding out how services should be tailored for adults with autism is well within it’s purview.

I don’t think terms for race and sexual orientation are comparable to terms for mental disability.

I do.

When any term is used in a derogatory way to belittle or reinforce a false view, that term should be challenged and its use questioned.

Maybe I am naive too – I have never heard a british person use the word retard to describe a person, whether as an insult os misguidedly.

Sadly, I have. Once or twice directed toward my autistic child.

I think its important to remember that no one is talking about banning the word ‘retard’ – it has a legitimate use. But then so does ‘fag’ (over here it is slang for a cigarette).

This campaign is to try and highlight the word ‘retard’ in its current slang usage as a derogatory term directed towards those with a learning based disability. Just as the phrase (common in my grandfathers time) ‘he works like a nigger’ is utterly unacceptable, the phrase ‘thats retarded’ should be unacceptable.

The issue and solution is not to ban individual words but to improve understanding so people can choose which words to use and wich not too.

It is very difficult for those of us not working in this field or living with these problems to know what is acceptable and what wil offend.

I think there needs to be more discrimination between language and meaning/intent. The use of the wrong word doesn’t always mean one is an ignorant obnoxious biggot.

I don’t think terms for race and sexual orientation are comparable to terms for mental disability. I don’t think tainting of the term can be dealt with by abandoning the term. I think it’s practical to openly discuss the term’s meaning and address its misuse, and to make sure it’s used in its original, legitimate way.

I don’t agree that such efforts will have no effect. I know a number of terms for race or sexual orientation that were basically accepted speech when I was young that are not now (at least where I live).

One big problem with the r-word is that it taints what was a legitimate term, mental retardation. As noted above (and previously on this blog) at least one journal has gone so far as to change its name, partly to avoid this stigma.

Barack Obama is President of the United States of America. He is human. He can make a mistake. He made a mistake on Jay Leno, referring to his bowling expertise as “special olympics”. Now fix it, really fix it!
It is time for a public apology: “I was nervous, I was pumped on Leno, I was giddy, I was foolish”.....all of the above. Obama needs to take air time to specify what he is going to do about his inappropriate words. Tim Shriver’s acceptance means zilch, nada, nothing. It is not his choice.

Our son, who is 21 was mimicked in High School. A young man who received perfect SAT board scores made fun of our child with autism. Everyone witnessed the joke, except our son. One brave student reported the harassment to my daughter. When I approached the mother of the guilty boy her reply was “oh, not my son, you must be mistaken”.....She was sadly shocked when the charge was corroborated.

A president can change thinking, by example.

I reiterate my caveat. President Obama, get in front of a camera and publicly say you made a mistake. The White House press should not speak for you in this case, neither should Tim Shriver.Then enlighten the world that the best thing that they can do about special olympics or special education or special people is to make an effort to understand . Awareness is key!

Last year I wrote about the bigotry in the film Tropic Thunder . I cringed at references to the “R” word. Comedian Chris Rock, whose pre-election monologue on Saturday Night Live, was highly offensive. He talked about the notion of having a minority in the White House (either a woman or an Afro American); his response was that “we already do have a minority in the White House, a retard.” I ask how was this okay? Was it because the general public was disgruntled with Bush? Should a political satire mock innocent human beings? Why should a population of people who cannot defend themselves be the brunt of that joke? Where was Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL? Where was NBC? There was no outrage, no CNN coverage, no blame.

Do we, as a nation contour our responses to politically correct “nouns du jour”? Does the movie industry stretch poetic license for financial gain? You betcha, because in this world “money talks, nobody walks”, and if the hype for Tropic Thunder induced ticket sales, it’s a win win.

Now, if some of those proceeds would be donated to autism research, my judge and jury would deem that the quintessential community service!

Even if the word retard was banned and if people lost the inclination over time to use it, and was replaced by a euphemism like intellectual disability, eventually there may be people using that phrase in an insulting way. I heard that the word retard itself was picked as a euphemism. It doesn’t make any sense to get rid of a word because it’s misused as an insult, when it still has a legitimate meaning.

I also detest the likely intentions of such euphemisms to obscure away from the underlying unfortunate meaning of the word. I’m sick of organizations such as the ASAN grandstanding like this with this pointless unnecessary hysteria, while they get almost nothing valuable done.

I reiterate my caveat. President Obama, get in front of a camera and publicly say you made a mistake. The White House press should not speak for you in this case, neither should Tim Shriver.Then enlighten the world that the best thing that they can do about special olympics or special education or special people is to make an effort to understand . Awareness is key!

Last year I wrote about the bigotry in the film Tropic Thunder . I cringed at references to the “R” word. Comedian Chris Rock, whose pre-election monologue on Saturday Night Live, was highly offensive. He talked about the notion of having a minority in the White House (either a woman or an Afro American); his response was that “we already do have a minority in the White House, a retard.” I ask how was this okay? Was it because the general public was disgruntled with Bush? Should a political satire mock innocent human beings? Why should a population of people who cannot defend themselves be the brunt of that joke? Where was Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL? Where was NBC? There was no outrage, no CNN coverage, no blame.

Do we, as a nation contour our responses to politically correct “nouns du jour”? Does the movie industry stretch poetic license for financial gain? You betcha, because in this world “money talks, nobody walks”, and if the hype for Tropic Thunder induced ticket sales, it’s a win win.

Now, if some of those proceeds would be donated to autism research, my judge and jury would deem that the quintessential community service!