Health bill uses word "retarded" ??!!

[quote=Timgt5;1093414]
Of paticular concern to me is what is on page 425. For those who may be getting up in their years may want to read that page VERY CAREFULLY, I will not say here what it is out of fear of censorship, but that part has some very dire implications for senior citizens and younger folks who have elderly parents.
quote]
Timgt5

To ease your mind a little, that's just an "urban legend" about the bill. Here's a link to the explanation.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2009/07/27/health-care-bill-page-425-the-truth.htm

I hate the word retard..its something used in the 80's here in UK..that word is so out of date and i despise people who use it because to me its pure ignorance...People wouldn't dare call my Son a retard...he has physical and mental delay and i correct anyone calling him or others such name. Spastic or Spaka is another word i despise...I don't care in what way its used it should never be used....its 2009 not 1989.
Rant over

This is the problem with the word, this is why it hurts people

First a little bit about myself, I am high functioning autistic, I also have some other disabilities. I dont use speech to often, sometimes I use a communication device to talk, or I just use the computer, e-mail or whatever. I was diagnosed when I was around 6, I was pretty low functioning, didnt talk, couldnt do most things to take care of myself at the age of 6. I could understand people somewhat then, but people didnt know that, and I guess it is hard to predict how a person is going to end up down the road and how far they are going to progress in there abilities. Anyway, at that age they diagnosed me as being 'mentally retarded'. I now know that I am not mentally retarded, sure I have my challenges, and there are many things I have not learned to do yet, but MR was a missdiagnoses.

Okay, so this is the problem with the word 'retarded'. Growing up people called me a 'retard', made fun of me, said I was retarded. When my dad would get mad at me he would call me a retard. That hurt beyond what I can describe. So many years of being called retard, retarded, stupid, whatever by the bullies, that made me start to believe that they were true, it left me with no confidence in myself, left me thinking that I could never get anywere, could never achive anything, and would be doomed to never be good enough. After I graduated high school I hit a all time low of feeling like this and a few times attempted to end it all. It took me many years of healing before I started to believe in myself and that all that stuff was wrong.
I know first hand why the word hurts peoples feelings, and how much a single word can hurt a person.
I am 25 now, I race road bicycles at pro level, and have a ton of confidence in my ability to achive what I want to. Those things dont bother me anymore, but I dont want anyone else to have to go threw the hurt from people who dont understand the harm a word can do.

No argument, that words can hurt. But the word "retard" means "slow." No matter what you change it to, the new term will be used to hurt, too.

I was doing laundry today and came across an analogy that can perhaps explain my opinion better that I have been.

The sport teams in my husband’s hometown are the “Nimrods”. They gained some national notoriety a few years ago because of ESPN’s most unusual team name competition. They were on some talk shows including Letterman and Sundance made a film about the town (if you chose to watch this movie please note that they found the biggest idiots they could to interview for this documentary. These people are not an accurate reflection of the general population.) Anyway because of this there was a huge increase for requests for merchandise with the sports logo on it. That year for Christmas my BIL gave the kids gifts of clothing and team merchandise.

Every single time one of my kids wears one of those articles of clothing an ignorant comment is made, even by adults. Although Nimrod is commonly used as an insult, it actually means mighty hunter or warrior (depending upon where you’re getting the definition).

We were in the grocery store a while ago, my husband and two of my kids were some distance away from me down the aisle. As this couple passed them (adults, pretty close to my own age) the male said something like how stupid do you have to be to wear a shirt that says Proud to be a Nimrod on it. I turned to him and said “I suggest you look the word up then decide which one of you is foolish.”

You can’t stop ignorant people.