Keep the "R" word alive!

If I was to say, " Oh, he used the 'R' word..." What would that mean to you? I would suppose most people would have a guess at it, but most wouldn't really know, unless they heard that pathetically hilarious radio commercial. There's a commercial I heard on the radio at the beginning of last summer that talked about how we need to put an end to the use of the word retard or retarded. They talk about how it's an insensitive word, that is hateful and mean and portrays the handicap people in a derogatory sense. Well, to that I say PISH POSH! They even have they're own website called, helpstoptheRword.com or something like that, I'm not quite sure. I never went to it. The way I see it is that people are sensitive enough (not that there's no room for improvement) to handicap people in this day and age. Sure, we make jokes to emphasize details and actions in funny stories, or to create mental images that tickle the brain, but I would say in most cases people are not inherently mean. When one calls another retarded they're just implying that they acted stupid, or did or said something idiotic. They are not comparing them to a person with down syndrome or some other handicap. They're simply calling them slow...in the head, which I think we can all agree happens to the best of us. It's commercials and groups like that that give power to the word. By claiming that it associates them with the word they're opening the door for it to be used foully towards them. I never really understood growing up why bad words were bad words. It always seemed so silly to me that a word could be so offensive. As I have been growing older I have seen people of all ages and cultures react in a bunch of different ways to some choice words that have been deemed taboo. My opinion has always been the same really. We choose to be offended or not. We cannot control how others act. We can choose how we act. Especially when it comes to something as simple as a word, which is no more than a vocalized though or idea. To me it seems worse to make more things forbidden because you know the kids, especially, and adults alike are always allured to such things, and without education on such things they become a whole other monster twisted into a new idea worse than the first. No, instead of making thing more things forbidden we should make less things forbidden and educate people more. I really think that's where the answer lies. When I call you retarded, I'm not insulting the handicapped. I'm insulting you, saying your less than handicapped. Because we all know that handicapped is really short for handicapable. Handicapped, I really think, is a worse word. Setting those people with differences to think they are less, when in reality they're just different. But hey, we're all different in our own way and have our own strengths and weaknesses, fo sho! Help educate the world, Don't set us back by buying into some of these things that sound like they're good hearted (and they are) but actually devolve us as a human society. We are better than that. Support the "R" word and all that using it offers us. We have the right to a colorful language. You know when someones being mean...