It hasn't even hit the 100 day mark for the new President and already the honeymoon is over. It's way over for me and thank you very much I'm Canadian!
This morning I received a few e-mails containing links concerning President Barack Obama's recent stint on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. To say the least I find it very disappointing and somewhat surprising that Obama would be so insensitive to the learning disabled community. In an attempt to make fun of himself, Obama commented that his low bowling score was suitable only for the Special Olympics. If a world leader finds it acceptable to be so callous then how can we expect the rest of society to be more sensitive when he sets such a poor example? In his effort to come off as self deprecating he ended up insulting a large segment of people and their supporters. As the mother to an autistic young man who participates in Special Olympics Bowling I find the President's comment to be offensive and disparaging. All I can say is, shame on you Barack Obama. Shame, shame, shame!!!
See the story and video links below.
See the story and video links below.
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4 comments:
Sad thing is if this were Bush they'd be calling for his head right now...guess his teleprompter must have been broken! Shame on you Obama!!
We all have said stupid things under pressure. I'm guilty as well and I have an autistic child. Obama's mistake will actually be a good thing. Many parents and the media have jumped on it and now there is a consciousness not there before. I'm happy he cracked under the pressure of live TV. Maybe more people will think about what they are saying.
It's not the first time the President has been on live tv, so using that as an excuse is not flying.
Also the Onion is on twitter as www.twitter.com/theOnion and fourth tweet down they stated this:
BREAKING: Obama On Special Olympics Gaffe: "Sorry, I Acted Like A Retard"
2:25 PM Mar 20th from twhirl
They have 236,900 followers and I saw a RT (retweet) from one member when browsing through searches at www.summize.com using Special Olympics.
I think they need to be called out on adding to the Special Olympics ignorance by mentioning the R word. It is so wrong and shows the lack of compassion of the general public our kids will be among when they turn 18 or 22 and finish highschool. I am autismfamily on twitter also
I was actually going to mention the "R" word, as you put it, in the blog post but decided to stick to the story. The use of the word retard has become one of my major pet peeves and I call anyone out who uses it. Unfortunately it's become all too common as part of the popular jargon in our culture and just as acceptable as stupid, dumb and dunce. SIGH
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