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Author Topic: Spread the Word to End the Word  (Read 4152 times)
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« on: April 05, 2009, 12:45:12 PM »

Across the United States, people on college campuses, in high school cafeterias and workaday offices have launched the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. The goal: make people stop and think about their hurtful and disparaging use of the word “retard.” 

What It's All About
Spread the Word to End the Word is raising the consciousness of society about the dehumanizing and hurtful effects of the R-word and urging people to resolve to stop using it as an insult, casual or intended.  (Take the pledge right now! )

"The earlier we can start teaching this awareness, the easier it will be to reverse the language, " wrote James Saetern of Sacramento, California, in an e-mail to Special Olympics. "This is not just a day of awareness, but a movement to end hate as a whole."

What's Going On
The campaign kicked off with more than 700 events and activities happening throughout the United States – and around the world. Celebrities and just plain folks put on Spread The Word T-shirts (order one for yourself), buttons or stickers or made signs and placards and banners to make it clear that usings the word "retard" as a term of derision is just as cruel and offensive as any other slur. Events weren't limited to one country. More than 1,000 school children in Malawi with and without disabilities gathered to raise awareness and symbolically bury the R-word.

One visitor to the R-word.org site said it well: "It was a commonly accepted term when I was growing up and is handed down from generation to generation like all strange sayings that never die and kids keep saying every year. Well, I have chosen to break the cycle and am teaching my kids how wrong it is."

Here's a sample of what happened:

    *State Proclamations
      Three U.S. states--California, Iowa and Oklahoma--made official proclamations about Spread the Word to End the Word day.
   
      * Congressional Recognition

      U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy issues a statement in support of Spread the Word to End the Word. Read the statement.
   
     * Spread the Word to End the Word online youth rally
      The 50-minute rally, streamed live on www.schooltube.com, featured actor Eddie Barbanell from the hit movie “The Ringer,” Special Olympics athletes and volunteers, and original music performed by rap artist Rush. Also on the program were original videos produced by young people. High school students across the country were asked to take the pledge to stop using the “R” word and to help raise awareness among their friends. The rally was produced by Miami Palmetto Senior High School 11th-grader Noah Gray, Special Olympics Florida and SchoolTube.
   
        * News Coverage
          o  The New York Times discusses the R-word campaign:  Marketers Lend Voices to Show Support for the Disabled
          o   Chicago Tribune columnist Maria King Carroll: New rule: Let's make this word unacceptable and reporter Rex W. Huppke's Fighting the R-Word
          o   DailyComet.com covers a high school event in Louisiana:  Vandebilt teachers and students help to ‘spread the word’
   
          * Take The R-word Pledge Rallies
          o American University, Beirut, Lebanon
            Soeren Palumbo's R-word speech played hourly; movie at 6 p.m., "The Loretta Claiborne Story"; posters, pictures, online R-word signups.
          o All high schools in Delaware, USA
            All 40,000 students will be asked to sign pledge boards in their schools.
          o Tower Hill School, Newark, NJ, USA
            Spread the Word day as culmination of a week of exploring disabilities
          o Fort Worth Independent School District, Fort Worth, TX, USA, all day
            Lunch-time rallies, video shows, student testimonials and R-word pledge boards
          o University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA, all day in high traffic areas
            Sign pledge boards, visit www.r-word.org, get information.
          o Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in five campus locations
            See posters, sign pledge boards, talk with committed volunteers and Special Olympics athletes.
          o University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA, all day in student union
            Sign the pledge board, talk about why you support the campaign, get stickers, buttons and bracelets
          o Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, all day on campus
            Sign the R-word pledge, see big-screen displays of Special Olympics and R-word videos.
          o Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA, all day on campus
            Sign pledge boards, get buttons, bracelets and stickers for free, buy T-shirts

How It Started
Created by young people with and without intellectual disabilities, Spread the Word to End the Word is one element of Special Olympics’ vision of a world where everyone matters, where everyone is accepted and, most importantly, where everyone is valued. Leading the way in promoting acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities, Special Olympics opposes prejudice and discrimination, continuously working to dispel the negative stereotypes associated with this population — the use of the R-word being one such stereotype. In a world that has worked to eliminate pejorative racial and ethnic language such as the “N word,” among others, the R-word is gaining popularity.

Actor and activist John C. McGinley, of the hit show “Scrubs,” helped with this effort by making national media appearances on behalf of the campaign.

What YOU Can Do

    *Take the R-word pledge to not use the word "retard" as a put-down
    *Download Spread the Word to End the Word resources

specialolympics.org

http://r-word.org/
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“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.” James Boswell
Moonshot
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« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2009, 12:46:34 PM »

Spread the Word to End the Word

A personal message from John C. McGinley


Hi, I'm John C. McGinley. I'm an ambassador for the National Down Syndrome Society, and today I'm teaming up with Special Olympics to bring you a message that's important to me.

So many times in life you are asked to change...John C. McGinley and son Max

Change your clothes. Change lanes. Change jobs. Change the sheets. Change flights. Change your tune. Change horses midstream. Change your latitudes and your attitudes!

Change, and the ability to adapt, is to the human condition as air is to the lungs. We change, and in the doing, we thrive!

In fact, we just elected a president who promised, above all else, to "change."

What if, on March 31, you elected to change the way you use the words "retard" and "retarded"?

Hardly seems like the largest of sacrifices. Not when you consider the changes in language that you have, so willingly, already elected to integrate into your vernacular. You no longer use the words nigger, or kike, or superstar, or jap, or kraut, or mick, or wop.

Why would you? Why on earth would you? Those are all words that hurt. Those are all racial and ethnic slurs and epithets that perpetuate negative stigmas. They are painful! And that is not okay.

It is wrong to pain people with your language. Especially, when you have already been made aware of your oral transgression's impact.

Make no mistake about it: WORDS DO HURT! And when you pepper your speak with "retard" and "retarded," you are spreading hurt. So stop it. Stop saying "retard" and "retarded." Those words suck! You are better than that and you definitely do not need to be "that guy."

There is no longer any acceptable occasion to lace your dialogue with the words "retard" and "retarded." Without fail, those words are the stuff of hurt. They, straight up, are. So, stop it! Stop using the "R-word."

The 7 million people with intellectual disabilities (around the planet) who are on the receiving end of this hate speak are genetically designed to love unconditionally. These "retards" are NEVER going to return your vitriol. Ever! So what could possibly be the up-side of continuing to use the "R-word" in your daily discourse?

We love you. We do!

And, just in case you missed it and you need an extra hug? We love you! You do not need to love us in any kind of reciprocal fashion. You don't. (It's not that kind of bargain.)

But, how about on March 31, you elect to change? A word? Two stinkin' syllables?

On March 31, join us and "Spread the Word to End the Word." And the word is "retard!" It HURTS! So help us to cut it out.

Thank you! We do love you!

John C. McGinley

specialolympics.org
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“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.” James Boswell
Moonshot
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« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2009, 12:54:04 PM »

John C. McGinley on Bonnie Hunt Show
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“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindnesses there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.” James Boswell
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