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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Stop the Word to End the Word

I've always loved the TV show Glee, which contains characters from every walk of life and shows that diversity is a good thing. I was pleasantly surprised when the show first introduced Becky (portrayed by Lauren Potter), a girl with Down Syndrome. I was even happier when I saw the "Not Acceptable" PSA starring Potter and Jane Lynch, which says that the word retarded (from hereon out the r word), among other ethnic slurs, is unacceptable. (Seriously, watch the video below. I mean it.)



I've posted about the r word in the past (here and here), and even changed my stance on the word because of a Bleep! member (here). I wholeheartedly believe in everything stated in the above PSA, and I hope that everyone who watches it at least tries to make an effort to stop using the r word.

The organization who released the PSA is called R-Word, and its motto is "spread the word to end the word." I took the pledge, which states, "I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities." I hope you all do it, too! The Bleep! Twitter now follows the R-Word, and the Bleep! YouTube channel subscribes to the R-Word's channel, too. I urge you all to do the same with your personal accounts.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Respect Others' Opinions

I know someone who runs this absolutely amazing blog, and we've become friends through it. I completely look up to her, because she is so extremely smart, savvy, ambitious, and a real go-getter. I was reading an article she posted a little while ago, and she included a video. She put a disclaimer that the video contains "profanity...and all that bleeping bleep." (Clearly, she used the real words there.)

When I read that, it really almost hurt to see. From reading other pieces of hers, I knew that she doesn't have a problem cursing every once in a while, but it bothered me that she would poke fun at people who feel uncomfortable with bad words. I understand if she personally has no problem cursing, and if she wants to, then I hope she enjoys herself when she uses bad words (provided she only uses them in conversation with others who feel the same way). However, I think it wasn't so nice of her to mock people who do care about bad words the way she did. All I'm asking for is respect for my beliefs. She doesn't need to agree with them - it would just be appreciated if she would respect them.