A week or so ago I posted “PLEASE lose the word “retard” from your vocabulary“. I basically asked people to lose the word “retard” their vocabulary. Now I realize there are “correct” uses for the word but I was making reference to persons with special needs. I was asking people not to use the word “retard” in reference to my kids in particular and any other person with special needs.
Perhaps I’ve just been lucky but I have NEVER been attacked on this blog before….NEVER. That it until tonight. A someone posted the following comment in response to my blog post:
“Let me get this straight… you have three retarded kids. That means that not only are you our your wife are making genetic failures, you kept right on breeding afterwards. Maybe you didn’t now about the first one immediately, and possibly didn’t know about the first by the time you had the second, but wtf at the third.
Do you plan on caring for these things their entire lives or do the taxpayers eventually have to baring the load of even more unwanted animals.”
I’ll be very honest with you, I’m FUCKING PISSED. I sitting here shaking right now. This was bound to happen at some point but I wasn’t ready. I know I should let this roll off of me but I just don’t know how to do that. Why am I sharing this? Well, for starters, I post HONESTLY about what our lives are like and the challenges we face as special needs parents. This is just one of the UGLIEST realities we face. I decided to let the comment by Mr. ThyGuyX stand because I think he illustrates the type of IGNORANCE we are ALL working against in an effort to spread Awareness. This is exactly why we ALL need to stand together as a special needs community, regardless or our differences and show the world that this type of…..whatever you want to call it….is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE.
What Mr. ThyGuyX has done is make me all that more determined to spread Autism Awareness. It reminds me of why I’m doing this in the first place. I don’t want ANY of MY children or anyone else’s for that matter to EVER face this type of IGNORANCE. So Mr. ThyGuyX, while you have succeeded in PISSING MY THE FUCK OFF, you have also MOTIVATED me to continue fighting the fight. So in the end…..I guess….. I should say thank you. You have given me another reason to get back up after I fall.
Sorry this happened to you. I know how upsetting it is. My husband writes a blog on my site about raising our son with autism, and we eventually had to set our comments to go into moderation first. We had some very similar things start to happen. Try not to take it personally. It's just a troll who gets a kick out of hurting and insulting others. It's really sick and depressing to know that people like this exist. We have 3 boys, too. Our oldest is named Gavin, and he has autism. Our middle boy was diagnosed with PDD-NOS. And our youngest is typical. A friend passed along your blog and I will enjoy following it!
Hi Rob Im so sorry you had to go through this my heart has broken a little more and you have handled it so well. Im not sure I would have been so brave to reply in such a calm manner. You guys rock and you are helping so many people every day please keep it up! xoxox Kellie
What is wrong with some people, they are so full of themselves they feel the need to attack good people who are doing everything they can for their kids.
Wow…. Just wow…. That <insert appropriate choice word here> has just reminded me of why I really do not like a lot of people as a whole. I'm glad that you're drawing strength from this and using it to further educate those like me that aren't personally touched by autism. You're doing wonderful work and remember as I said, just by touching one person at a time, you are making a difference. Rob, thank you for sharing your life so we can learn from it.
So sorry to hear what you had to read from that moron. Some peple just have no morals at all. I know first hand that Autistic Kids are some of the smartest kids I have ever come across. They can have a very high level of functioning, Your three kids I'm sure have a higher IQ than the jerk that wrote that nastiness to you. Let it roll of your shoulder . He probably was dropped on his head at birth!!
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I agree, we are from UK, have had so much trouble with ignorance and that word. Our eldest is on the spectrum One of our neighbours said some hateful things to us including that word to describe our eldest, and threatened us so badly we had him arrested, don't want to go into what was said but still think about it. We just think how much of a pathetic excuse he is, it hurts because there are so many people like that. Why can't they try to understand I don't know? perhaps it's easier for them to have no morals, point fingers and threaten abuse because they make no effort to try and understand. Thoughts go out to everyone who knows how this feels.
Thanks everyone
I am sorry for the rudeness in others in the end life will come back to haunt them. As for the word Retard, the main problem is its still a medial term. I was raised believing the word retarded meant a brain defect from birth rather than addled which I was also raised to believe meant a brain defect from an accident after birth. I will also agree that Autism only slightly comes into that range as its how the pathways connect in the brain – the major difference is the term implies to irreparable damage unlike Autism where they can relearn pathways in the brain and they are not stuck where they are. (save the severe end of the spectrum)
While I have not dropped the word from my vocabulary I will say the only people I use the term for are people like that nasty bastard who wrote you – obviously he does have a mental issue and has now been correctly labeled.
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WOW. I am so sorry you went through this. People are just so wrong. I understand why you're so upset. Please know that those people are few and far between and mostly not worth anyone's time. Grab ahold of you support system and walk away. They're truely not worth your time.
It’s exceedingly obvious from this guy’s comment that YOU are not the genetic failure here.
***HUGS***
***HUGS***
OMG – How Frickin' RUDE! I just have no adequate words for this guy, and I'm sorry he insulted you, but in the end, he insults himself by demonstrating how completely heartless and unsympathetic he is (not to mention completely ignorant). You keep fighting the good fight and pay no mind to that stupid guy or any other stupid guy you come across!
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I will never understand why some people seem to enjoy hurting others. I'm sorry this happened to you, Rob.