New York City Council plans to ban use of "mentally retarded," people freak out

Today, The New York City Council will introduce a bill to banish the use of the words "mentally retarded" from official documents and sites and instead use "developmentally disabled," the local news reported. As Councilman David Greenfield noted, "People use it in an insulting way."

The move is in line with New York state and federal law governments, which changed the term in 2010 (for info on where your state stands, check this page on Spread the Word To End The Word). Comments I saw last night on CBS New York ran the usual gamut:

Inevitable comment from someone who thinks he's being brilliantly funny by using the word: "That's retarded."

Inevitable comment from someone who believes people are being too p.c.: "How sad...while we are dedicating our time to being politically correct and not offend anyone, places like Japan are testing out Maglev trains and running bullet trains going over 200 mph.... Thanks for making political correctness a big priority here in the states, RETARDS."

Inevitable comment from person who gets it: "Some of you people are just plain IGNORANT and RUDE."

Inevitable comment from person who thinks they are Merriam-Webster: "The word 'retard' is not derogatory in all context."

Inevitable comment from person with special needs who's been hurt by the word: "You people can joke about this all you want, but it's not funny. I had a speech impediment and I was relentlessly teased in middle school."

The truth is that, like Max, many kids and adults who suffer the consequences can't speak up for themselves. As his mom, it pains me—and many parents of kids with disabilities—to hear the word retard freely tossed around. So I'll say it again (and again), for Max's sake and others': Even if you aren't using the word to directly insult a person with intellectual disability, you're spreading the idea that people with ID are stupid, pathetic, losers and just plain uncool. As if kids like my son don't already have enough social challenges to overcome.

People can cry freedom of speech, people can take the stance that other insulting words will come along to take the place of "retard" and "retarded." I say, please use another word that doesn't demean people with disabilities—and use these initiatives as jumping-off points for conversations about respect and equality for people with special needs.

Image: Poster by graphic designer Alison Rowan

Share your posts about the r-word—a linkup

Spread The Word To End The Word Day was Wednesday, and a whole lot of people wrote a whole lot of powerful posts about the word "retard." Please share them here so we can spread the word even more. Feel free to post ones from previous years, too.

Where it says "Your name" put the title of your post, and where it says "Your URL" for the link put the direct URL to your post. Done!

Would you call my child a ret-rd?

"I use the word retard every day."

"A campaign against a word is retarded."

"Thicken up ur skin and stop taking this stuff so seriously!"

"Being called a retard is a common insult that is usually deserved by the recipient."

"To speak out against the use of just one word, simply because it's personal to you, is unacceptable."

These are some of the recent comments I've gotten on posts about how demeaning the word "retard" is. Last year, when I did that Twitter project where I tweeted at people who used the word retard, I got responses that were even more lovely. 

Today is Spread The Word To End The Word Day, part of an ongoing campaign against the r-word created by The Special Olympics. As I write this, close to 250,000 people have signed a pledge against the word "retard." A kajillion more don't get what's so wrong. And so, I made this video.

Most people would never call a kid with cognitive disabilities a "retard" to his face (and if you are a person who would do that, step away from this blog and go search for your soul). If you wouldn't say the word to my child because you know it's offensive, you should avoid using it elsewhere, too. Either way, it's demeaning. Either way, it hurts my child.

Feel free to post the video on your blog, tweet it, Facebook it, beam it up to alternative life forms. It would mean a lot to me. No matter what, thanks for taking a look.

Ultimately, this isn't just about a word—it's about respect. It's about getting people to consider kids and adults with cognitive impairment equal members of society. It's not about censorship, either; it's about starting a conversation on how people can better treat Max and others like him.

Max has enough challenges to overcome in life without being haunted by ghosts of stereotypes past. As his mom, I want to give him every possible advantage. If asking people to not use a word could help my son in some way, you bet I'm going to ask.