The hobgoblin of little minds

Dear Governor Palin,

Recently, you've brought our attention to the fact that words have the power to hurt, and that we live in an ableist society where the disabled often have to hear derogatory terms for their disabilities used as insults. And despite you rather inconsistent application of it, I respect your defense of your son and the people who share his disability.

So it would behoove you to remember that there are other people with other disabilities in the world, and they don't like their disabilities used as insults any more than than people with intellectual disabilities do. I know it's hard to train ableist language out of your vocabulary, particularly when it makes such a snappy pun, but really. You can't expect the rest of us to do it if you can't be bothered to do it yourself, can you?

Signed,

The daughter of a quadriplegic who loves her mother as much you love your son, and gets just a much of a gut-punch when people use "lame" as you do when they use "retard."






(And yes, this is just the tiniest tip of the gigantic planetoid of issues I have with Sarah Palin, but most of them involve incoherent garbling rage, and this is the one that contains a point I'd like to make to a lot of people, many of whom I respect. Unlike her)