“NOT RETARDED” One Part of the Community Expresses Language Hurts!
Steve Hoad

“send letters to organizations to help them understand that retarded isn’t a proper word”…    “it hurts us if you call us retarded”…    “it is Ok to write the word retarded in order to explain to them that it is hurtful.”
(Paul Piccard, Augusta)

We have all felt the sting of hurtful words. They stick in our throats if we have to say them and stick in our hearts when we hear them. One particular segment of our communities has been speaking up about the hurt inflicted by one word, “retarded,” and their challenges are finding people and organizations who will hear their stories and reasons.

It is a word now used to mean much more than a medical diagnosis — a word that now expresses disdain or stupidity, funny or simpleness

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